whorish, a. Now arch.
(ˈhɔərɪʃ)
[f. whore n. + -ish1.]
1. a. Having the character of a whore; addicted to whoredom; lewd, unchaste (of a woman; rarely of a man).
| 1560 Bible (Geneva) Prov. vi. 26 Because of the whoorish woman a man is broght to a morsel of bread. Ibid. Ezek. xvi. 30 Y⊇ worke of a presumpteous whorish woman. 1611 Coryat's Crudities Panegyr. Verses g 2 b, He knew and felt the whores, yet was not whorish. 1624 Davenport City Night-cap i. i, What plague can transcend A whorish wife, and a perfidious friend! 1632 Lithgow Trav. ix. 382 Whoorish boyes. 1675 South Serm., Judges viii. 34, 35 (1697) I. 509 Joseph..a poor..Stranger, languishing in Durance upon the false accusations of a lying, insolent whorish Woman! 1948 D. Welch Brave & Cruel 245 Mary..had nothing to take her mind from the hideous picture of a breast pump, a whorish wife and an idiot baby. 1981 V. Canning Boy on Platform One iv. 60 Whorish..the word swam gently into his mind. Whore, too, she was. |
b. Belonging to or characteristic of a whore; meretricious; lewd, unchaste (of action, etc.).
| 1552 Huloet, Hooryshe.., or perteynynge to a hoore, meretricius. 1556 Olde Antichrist 203 Men geuen to their paunche and hoorishe lustes. 1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. iv. i. 63 You like a letcher, out of whorish loynes, Are pleas'd to breede out your inheritors. 1761 Rec. Elgin (New Spald. Club 1903) I. 198 Barbara Reid for whorish practices expelled the burgh. 1942 D. Welch Jrnl. 30 Aug. (1952) 7 When we had..pushed back the whorish, dirty red satin curtain. 1967 A. Laski Seven Other Years iv. 56 It was a charming dress..virginal in colour, whorish in cut. 1980 A. E. Fisher Midnight Men iv. 45 Bathrooms should reflect..the woman of the house... I'd like a sort of whorish pink. |
2. fig.,
esp. in religious and controversial use (often
= idolatrous):
cf. whore n. 2.
| 1535 Coverdale Ezek. vi. 9 That whorish and vnfaithfull herte of theirs, wherwith they runne awaye fro me. 1538 Bale Thre Lawes C ii b, Regarde not the pope, nor yet hys whorysh kyngedom. c 1586 C'tess Pembroke Ps. lxxiii. vii, They all shall be undone, Who leaving thee to whoorish idolls run. 1680 R. L'Estrange Citt & Bumpkin (ed. 3) 16 The Church of England..is not altogether the Whore of Babylon, though a good deal Whorish. 1696 Brookhouse Temple Opened 47 The Bride has a Husband..sufficient to maintain her against all Whorish, Beastly or Satannical Usurpations. 1711 Steele Spect. No. 82 ¶3 Jack has a whorish unresisting Good-nature, which makes him incapable of having a Property in any thing. |
Hence
ˈwhorishly adv.;
ˈwhorishness.
| 1538 Elyot Dict., Meretricie, *hoorishely. 1589 Nashe Martin Marprelate Wks. (Grosart) I. 108 Howe whorishlie Scriptures are alleaged by them, I will discouer..in another new worke. 16.. Middleton, etc. Old Law iv. ii, Are you so whorishly provided? 1755 Johnson, Meretriciously, whorishly; after the manner of whores. 1977 Listener 25 Aug. 246/3 The gratuitous violence, slotted whoreishly into the sequences. |
| 1546 Bale Engl. Votaries i. 18 Marke how abhominable *whoryshnesse..is auaunced of that whorysh Rome churche, to the great blemyshynge of Godly marryage. 1691 Wood Ath. Oxon. II. 706 The said Anne was..for her whorishness lawfully divorced. 1727 Bailey vol. II, Meretriciousness, whorishness. |