Obs. or arch. [f. WHORE sb. + MASTER sb. (The sense of ‘procurer’ alleged for this word and whoremonger in some Dicts. is not authenticated.)] = next.
a. 1508. Dunbar, Tua Mariit Wemen, 168. My husband wes a hur maister…. He has bene waistit apon wemen … And in adultre.
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., II. iv. 516. That hee is (sauing your reuerence) a Whore-master, that I vtterly deny.
1610. Healey, St. Aug. Citie of God, 188. The stage-plaiers act … Iove for the veriest whore-maister in the world.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 446, ¶ 7. Our ordinary Poets cannot frame to themselves the Idea of a fine Man who is not a Whore-master.
1747. Chesterf., Lett. to Son, 27 March. A Man of Pleasure, in the vulgar acceptation of that phrase, means only, a beastly drunkard, an abandoned whore-master, and a profligate swearer.
1769. Blackstone, Comm., IV. xviii. 253. A justice may bind over all night-walkers; eavesdroppers;… common drunkards; whoremasters; the putative fathers of bastards;… and other persons, whose misbehaviour may reasonably bring them within the general words of the statute, as persons not of good fame.
attrib. c. 1570. Depos. Durham (Surtees), 264. Cauling this examinate hooremaster preiste.
1605. Shaks., Lear, I. ii. 137. An admirable euasion of Whore-master-man, to lay his Goatish disposition to the charge of a Starre.
1614. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, V. iv. You whore-master knaue.
1878. Prodigal Son, VI. in Simpson, Sch. Shaks., II. 119. Shall I … be merry because my whoremaster brother is come back?
Hence Whoremasterly a., having the character of a whoremaster, lecherous; Whoremastery, the practice of a whoremaster, fornication.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., V. iv. 7. That Greekish *whore-maisterly villaine.
1706. Baynard, Cold Baths, II. (ed. 2), 96. The vile and wicked whore-masterly Husband.
1618. N. Field, Amends for Ladies, V. i. A great hurt to the art of *whoremastry.
