▪ I. brothel, n.
(ˈbrɒθ(ə)l)
Also 5–7 brothell(e, 5 brodel(le.
[ME. broþel, f. OE. broðen ruined, degenerate, pa. pple. of bréoðan to go to ruin: a variant of brethel.
The modern sense arises from confusion with an entirely different word bordel (q.v.); the brothel was originally a person, the bordel a place. But the combinations bordel-house and brothel's house ran together in the form brothel-house, which being shortened to brothel, the personal sense of this word became obs., and it remains only as the substitute of the original bordel.]
† 1. A worthless abandoned fellow, a wretch, scoundrel, scapegrace, good-for-nothing.
| 1393 Gower Conf. III. 173 Quod Achab thanne, There is one, A brothel, which Micheas hight. 1394 P. Pl. Crede 772 Ne bedden swiche broþels In so brode schetes. c 1440 York Myst., xix. 265 Lorde, tokenyng hadde we none To knawe þat brothell [Christ] by. c 1460 Towneley Myst. 130, I [Herod] shall se that brodelle [Christ] bloode By hym that me has boght. c 1475 Lyt. Childr. Bk. in Babees Bk. (1868) 18 Fylle not thy mouth as done brothellis. 1532 More Confut. Tindale Wks. 514/1 The holy Lenton faste, whiche these brotheles so boldly take vpon them to breake. 1594 Carew Tasso (1881) 117 [They] with wrath..Enflamde, fortune vniust and brothell call. |
† 2. a. An abandoned woman, a prostitute.
Obs.| 1493 Festivall (W. de W. 1515) 54 b, He..went agayne to a brodelles hous. 1535 Fisher Wks. 418 Why doeth a common brothel take no shame of hir abhomination? 1546 Langley Pol. Verg. De Invent. iii. xii. 79 b, Venus..was a common harlot & brothel of her body. 1583 Stubbes Anat. Abus. 58 A filthie strumpet or brothel. 1606 G. W[oodcocke] Ivstine 113 b, A company of concubins and brothels. |
† b. (See
quot.)
Obs. rare.
| 1613 R. C. Table Alph. (ed. 3), Brothell, keeper of a house of baudry. |
3. Short for
brothel's house,
brothel-house (2, 4 b); taking the place of the earlier
bordel, bordel-house: A house of ill fame, bawdy-house.
| a 1593 H. Smith Wks. (1867) II. 26 Some [return] unto the taverns, and some unto the alehouses..and some unto brothels. 1605 Shakes. Lear iii. iv. 99 Keepe thy foote out of Brothels. a 1704 T. Brown Sat. Wks. 1730 I. 56 We need not rake the brothel and the stews. 1711 Steele Spect. No. 190 ¶2 You understand by this time that I was left in a Brothel. 1751 Johnson Rambl. No. 171 ¶12 Tricked up for sale by the mistress of a brothel. 1828 Macaulay Hallam, Ess. (1851) I. 86 The offal of gaols and brothels. |
4. attrib. and
Comb. a. attrib. or as adj.| 1633 P. Fletcher Purple Isl. i. xviii, Or Mævius chaunt his thoughts in brothell charm. a 1711 Ken Hymnotheo Wks. 1721 III. 291 With so profligate a Race, Within their Brothel-Heav'n. a 1856 Mrs. Browning Soul's Trav. 39 The brothel shriek, and the Newgate laugh. |
b. comb., as
brothel-haunting,
brothel-keeper,
brothel-like,
brothel-master,
brothel-monger;
brothel-creeper (shoe) slang, (in
pl.) suède or soft-soled shoes;
brothel-house = brothel 3.
| 1954 G. Smith Flaw in Crystal ix. 81 ‘Poncing about the place in those *brothel-creepers of his!’.. He always wore plush suede shoes. 1959 ‘A. Fraser’ High Tension ii. 24 He had immaculately creased grey flannel trousers and brothel-creeper shoes. 1959 H. Hobson Mission House Murder iv. 31 Those ghastly suède shoes with two-inch crêpe soles and corrugated edges, known to the Edwardian élite..as brothel-creepers. 1969 J. Fredman Fourth Agency ix. 85 Suède brothel-creeper boots. |
| 1692 tr. Sallust 17 The Rage of adulterous Lust, of *Brothel-haunting and other Bestialities. |
| 1530 Palsgr. 201/2 *Brothelleshouse, bordel. 1535 Coverdale Ezek. xvi. 39 [They] shal breake downe thy stewes, and destroye thy brodel houses. 1599 Shakes. Much Ado i. i. 256. 1678 Yng. Man's Call. 273 Thou shalt be..put into the common stews & brothel-houses. |
| 1820 T. Mitchell Aristoph. I. 255 One Philostratus, a *brothel-keeper. |
| 1803 Southey in Ann. Rev. I. 41 We will not transcribe Mr. Fischer's *brothel-like description. |
| 1608 Middleton Trick to Catch, &c., He's a rioter, a wast-thrift, a *brothel-master. |
| 1566 Drant Horace Sat. i. iv. 113 No *brothelmonger be. |
▪ II. † ˈbrothel, v. Obs. [f. prec. n.]| 1598 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. i. iii. (1621) 217 Who, like Lust-greedy Goates, Brothel from bed to bed. |