▪ I. † ˈbawdy, a. Obs.
Forms: 4–5 baudy, 5–6 bawdy, 6 baudye, 7 bawdy.
[Derivation unknown. Skeat compares W. bawaidd dirty, f. baw mud. The F. boue ‘mud’ is probably of same origin.]
Soiled, dirty, filthy.
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. v. 197 A tauny tabarde..Al totorne and baudy, and ful of lys crepynge. c 1430 Lydg. Bochas ix. xxxiv. (1554) 214 b, He..in the kechen laye Among the pottes with baudy coate. 1527 Whittinton Vulg. 28 b, Holde thy bawdy handes fro my boke..My handes be as clene as thyne. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. ii. iii. iii. (1651) 323 Slovenly cooks, that..never wash their bawdy hands. |
b. fig. of language: Vile, abominable, barbarous.
| 1519 W. Horman Vulg. 90 b, Them that wyll nat come out of theyr baudy latyn [qui barbariem nunquam exuunt]. |
▪ II. bawdy, a.2
(ˈbɔːdɪ)
Forms: 6 bawdye, bawdie, 6–7 baudie, baudy, 6– bawdy.)
[f. bawd n. + -y. Probably often associated in sense with prec.]
1. Of, pertaining to, or befitting a bawd; lewd, obscene, unchaste. (Usually applied to language.)
| 1513 Bradshaw St. Werburge (1848) 209 Baudy balades full of..wanton wylde gestis. 1616 R. C. Times' Whis. v. 2137 The chamber wher you lay your head With baudie pictures round about doe spread. c 1765 Burke On Drama Wks. X. 158 Listening to a bawdy story from his host. |
2. absol. quasi-n., esp. in phr. to talk bawdy (where perh. orig. adverbial): Lewd, obscene language, lewdness, obscenity.
| 1656 Sanderson Serm. (1689) 16 To drink, talk bawdy, swear and stare. 1698 Vanbrugh æsop Prol., No rape, no bawdy, no intrigue, no beau. 1702 De Foe More Reform. 787 Eternal Bawdy fills up every Song. 1760 Sterne Tr. Shandy 220 How can that unconscionable coachman talk so much bawdy to that lean horse. |
3. Comb. bawdy-basket, a hawker of indecent literature; bawdy-house, a brothel.
| 1552 Huloet, Bawdye house or house of bawdrye..summœnium. 1567 Harman Caveat 65 These Bawdy baskets be..wemen, and go with baskets..where in they have laces, pynnes, nedles. 1785 Grose Dict. Vulg. Tongue, Bawdy Basket, the twenty-third rank of canters, who carry pins, tape, ballads and obscene books to sell. 1882 Ev. Man's Own Lawyer 390 The keeping a bawdy house is a common nuisance. |
▪ III. † ˈbawdy, v. Obs.
Also 6 baudy.
[f. bawdy a.1]
To make dirty or filthy, to befoul, defile.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xviii. lxxxvii. (1495) 836 The swyne..walowyth in dyrte..and bawdyeth hymself therwyth. 1530 Palsgr. 444/2 He hath baudyed his sleves on this facyon. |