PROSTITUTE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Prostitute

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/prˈɑstətˌut/ Listen

noun

Prostitute n.

A woman giver to indiscriminate lewdness; a strumpet; a harlot.

A base hireling; a mercenary; one who offers himself to infamous employments for hire. "No hireling she, no prostitute to praise."

verb

Prostitute v. t. (past & past part. prostituted; pres. part. prostituting)

To offer, as a woman, to a lewd use; to give up to lewdness for hire. "Do not prostitute thy daughter."

To devote to base or unworthy purposes; to give up to low or indiscriminate use; as, to prostitute talents; to prostitute official powers.

adjective

Prostitute adj. Openly given up to lewdness; devoted to base or infamous purposes. "Made bold by want, and prostitute for bread."

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Etymology of 'Prostitute'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Prostitute" Quotes from Famous Books

... you should take steps to prevent that young man's return among our people. You should explain to the father that it cannot be allowed. From what I hear, it would be no loss if the whole family left the parish. I am told that one of the daughters is a—prostitute." ...

— The Vicar of Bullhampton • Anthony Trollope

... that woman who makes a common prostitute of herself—I warrant she'll not say she has lit on a man she ...

— Amphitryo, Asinaria, Aulularia, Bacchides, Captivi • Plautus Titus Maccius

... body was found in a swamp beyond the town, stabbed all over and covered with wounds. The medical examination and the preliminary investigation were influenced by the popular belief that the child had been tortured to death by the Jews. This belief was fostered by two Christian fortune-tellers, a prostitute beggar-woman, called Mary Terentyeva, and a half-witted old maid, by the name of Yeremyeyeva, who by way of divination made the parents of the child believe that its death was due to the Jews. At the judicial inquiry, Terentyeva implicated two of the most prominent Jews of ...

— History of the Jews in Russia and Poland. Volume II • S.M. Dubnow

... he made a livelihood, had always to me been a profound mystery; and as he avoided the subject, I never questioned him. But how he intended to live, after our marriage, I soon became painfully aware. He resolved that I should support him in idleness, by becoming a common prostitute. When he made this debasing and inhuman proposition to me, I rejected it with the indignation it merited; whereupon he very coolly informed me, that unless I complied, he should abandon me to my fate, and proclaim ...

— City Crimes - or Life in New York and Boston • Greenhorn

... Mother! That most holy name, Which Heaven and Nature bless, I may not vilely prostitute to those Whose infants owe them less 55 Than the poor caterpillar owes Its gaudy parent fly. You were a mother! at your bosom fed The babes that loved you. You, with laughing eye, Each twilight-thought, each nascent feeling read, 60 Which you yourself created. Oh! ...

— The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Vol I and II • Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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