subs. (once literary: now low or vulgar).—1. A woman (orig.) who SPREAD (q.v.) for hire; in modern use, a harlot, strumpet, adulteress, or fornicatress: see TART. Hence (2) a generic term of abuse: of a woman, chaste or unchaste: cf. BLOODY, BUGGER, FUCKING, and similar expletives. Also WHORE’S-BIRD (WHORESON; WHORECOP) = (1) bastard, and (2) a generic reproach); and numerous combinations.
1275. Genesis and Exodus [E.E.T.S.], 4072.
| Ðe me[i]stres of ðise HORE-MAN … | |
| Ðe bidde ic hangen ðat he ben. |
1280. The Ancren Riwle, 316. Ich am a ful stod mere: a stinckinde HORE [I am a foul stud mare, a stinking WHORE].
c. 1401. Towneley Mysteries, ‘Juditium.’
| Alle harlottes and HORRES, | |
| And bawdes that procures, | |
| To bryng thaym to lures, | |
| Welcom to my see. |
1440. Promptorium Parvulorum, s.v. HORE, woman, Meretrix. Ibid., s.v. HOREL, or bullowre, Fornicator … leno mechus.
1595. SHAKESPEARE, Romeo and Juliet, iv. 4. Well said; a merry WHORESON, ha! Ibid. (1596), Hamlet, v. 2. 64. He that hath kill’d my King and WHORED my mother. Ibid. (1598), 2 Henry IV., iii. 2. 193. A WHORESON cold, sir, a cough, sir. Ibid. (1602), Othello, v. 1. 116. This is the fruit of WHORING. Ibid. (1602), Troilus and Cressida, ii. 3. A WHORESON dog that shall patter thus with us. Ibid. (1603), Measure for Measure, v. 1. 521. Do not marry me to a WHORE.
1602. MARSTON, Antonio and Mellida, i. iv. 1. Your WHORISH love, your drunken healths, your bouts and shouts.
1607. DEKKER, Northward Hoe, ii. 2. The WHORESON rich innkeeper of Doncaster, her father, shewed himself a rank ostler to send her up at this time a year, and by the carrier too.
1610. FLETCHER, The Maids Tragedy, v.
| Evad. Thou keptst me brave at Court, and WHOR’D me, King; | |
| Then married me to a young noble gentleman. |
1611. COTGRAVE, Dictionarie, s.v. Madame de rebut, a rascally drab, a WHORE.
[?]. Mary Ambree [CHILD, Ballads, vii. 113].
| ‘A mayden of England, sir, never will bee | |
| The WHORE of a monarcke,’ quoth Mary Ambree. |
d. 1628. JOSEPH BEAUMONT, Psyche, iii. 184.
| Thou knowst my Wrongs, and with what pain I wear | |
| The Name of WHORE his Preachment on me pinn’d. |
d. 1655. T. ADAMS, The Fatal Banquet, in Works, i. 223. Tamar would not yield to Judah without a hire. The hire makes the WHORE.
1694. ECHARD, Plautus’s Comedies Made English, 9. They’d set some sturdy WHORES-BIRD to meet me and beat out ha’f a dozen o’ my teeth.
1713. ARBUTHNOT, Law Is a Bottomless-pit v. Nic. Frog was a cunning sly WHORESON, quite the reverse of John in many Particulars.
c. 1716. CONGREVE, Juvenal, xi.
| A Vestal ravish’d, or a Matron WHOR’D, | |
| Are laudable Diversions in a Lord. |
1772. BRIDGES, A Burlesque Translation of Homer, 183.
| Brave Diomed, I see | |
| Two WHORES’ birds coming full at thee. |
1772. R. GRAVES, The Spiritual Quixote, IV. ix. D-mn you all together, for a pack of WHORES-BIRDS as you are!
1857. T. HUGHES, Tom Brown’s School-days, I. ii. ‘Imp’dent old WOSBIRD!’ says he, ‘I’ll break the bald head on un.’
