▪ I. bawdry1 arch.
(ˈbɔːdrɪ)
Forms: 4–8 bawdery, 4–7 baudery, 5 baudre, 6 baudrey, baudrye, bawdrye, (baudeir,) bauderie, baudrie, 6–7 baudry, bawdrie, 7–8 bawdry.
[f. bawd n.1 + -ry; the sense does not agree with F. bauderie, which means simply ‘boldness, liveliness.’]
1. The practice of a bawd; the business of providing opportunities for sexual immorality.
| c 1374 Chaucer Troylus iii. 348 Me thoght..I shold wene hit were a bawdery. 1447–8 J. Shillingford Lett. (1871) 104 Yif any such mysrule and bawdery bee within the saide taverne. 1569 J. Sandford Agrippa's Van. Artes 97 Bawdrie is the arte of assaultinge and makinge common an others chastitie. 1634 T. Johnson Parey's Chirurg. xxiv. xlii. (1678) 571 The most filthy and infamous Arts of Baudery. 1726 Ayliffe Parerg. 42 Bawdry..is a wicked Practice of procuring and bringing Whores and Rogues together. |
† 2. gen. Unchastity, fornication. Obs.
| 1460 in Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1866) 97 And he be getten in bawdre. 1600 Shakes. A.Y.L. iii. iii. 99 We must be married, or we must liue in baudrey. 1651 Weldon Crt. Jas. I, 7 For the bringing this bawdery to a marriage. |
3. Lewdness in speech or writing; lewd, obscene, or filthy talk, etc.
| 1589 Pappe w. Hatchet (1844) 23 If Martin speake broad bawdrie. 1611 Shakes. Wint. T. iv. iv. 194 He has the prettiest Loue-songs for Maids, so without bawdrie. 1711 Steele Spect. No. 51 ¶2 No one ever writ Bawdry for any other Reason but Dearth of Invention. 1792 A. Young Trav. France 135 A voluble garniture of bawdry or nonsense. |
b. attrib. = bawdy a.2
| 1763 Churchill Duellist 111 Poems II. 36 Bawl'd bawdry songs to a Psalm Tune. |
† 4. Material filth; dirt, defilement. Cf. bawdy a.1 Obs.
| 1648 Herrick Hesper. 141 (D.) And have our roofe..And seeling free From that cheape candle baudery. |
▪ II. † bawdry2 Obs.
[? f. baude gay.]
Finery.
| a 1529 Skelton Agst. Garnische 40 Crimson velvet for your bawdry. 1693 W. Robertson Phraseol. Gen. 216 Bawdry, i.e. bravery..lautitia vestium. |
▪ III. bawdry3
obs. form of baldric.
| a 1697 Aubrey in D'Israeli Cur. Lit. (1866) 293 They wore about their necks a great horn..in a string or bawdry. |