| 释义 |
▪ I. brothel, n.|ˈbrɒθ(ə)l|
Also 5–7 brothell(e, 5 brodel(le.
[ME. broþel, f. OE. broðen ruined, degenerate, pa. pple. of bréoðan to go to ruin: a variant of brethel.
The modern sense arises from confusion with an entirely different word bordel (q.v.); the brothel was originally a person, the bordel a place. But the combinations bordel-house and brothel's house ran together in the form brothel-house, which being shortened to brothel, the personal sense of this word became obs., and it remains only as the substitute of the original bordel.]
†1. A worthless abandoned fellow, a wretch, scoundrel, scapegrace, good-for-nothing.
1393Gower Conf. III. 173 Quod Achab thanne, There is one, A brothel, which Micheas hight. 1394P. Pl. Crede 772 Ne bedden swiche broþels In so brode schetes. c1440York Myst., xix. 265 Lorde, tokenyng hadde we none To knawe þat brothell [Christ] by. c1460Towneley Myst. 130, I [Herod] shall se that brodelle [Christ] bloode By hym that me has boght. c1475Lyt. Childr. Bk. in Babees Bk. (1868) 18 Fylle not thy mouth as done brothellis. 1532More Confut. Tindale Wks. 514/1 The holy Lenton faste, whiche these brotheles so boldly take vpon them to breake. 1594Carew Tasso (1881) 117 [They] with wrath..Enflamde, fortune vniust and brothell call.
†2.
a. An abandoned woman, a prostitute. Obs.
1493Festivall (W. de W. 1515) 54 b, He..went agayne to a brodelles hous. 1535Fisher Wks. 418 Why doeth a common brothel take no shame of hir abhomination? 1546Langley Pol. Verg. De Invent. iii. xii. 79 b, Venus..was a common harlot & brothel of her body. 1583Stubbes Anat. Abus. 58 A filthie strumpet or brothel. 1606G. W[oodcocke] Ivstine 113 b, A company of concubins and brothels.
†b. (See quot.) Obs. rare.
1613R. C. Table Alph. (ed. 3), Brothell, keeper of a house of baudry.
3. Short for brothel's house, brothel-house (2, 4 b); taking the place of the earlier bordel, bordel-house: A house of ill fame, bawdy-house.
a1593H. Smith Wks. (1867) II. 26 Some [return] unto the taverns, and some unto the alehouses..and some unto brothels. 1605Shakes. Lear iii. iv. 99 Keepe thy foote out of Brothels. a1704T. Brown Sat. Wks. 1730 I. 56 We need not rake the brothel and the stews. 1711Steele Spect. No. 190 ⁋2 You understand by this time that I was left in a Brothel. 1751Johnson Rambl. No. 171 ⁋12 Tricked up for sale by the mistress of a brothel. 1828Macaulay Hallam, Ess. (1851) I. 86 The offal of gaols and brothels.
4. attrib. and Comb.
a. attrib. or as adj.
1633P. Fletcher Purple Isl. i. xviii, Or Mævius chaunt his thoughts in brothell charm. a1711Ken Hymnotheo Wks. 1721 III. 291 With so profligate a Race, Within their Brothel-Heav'n. a1856Mrs. Browning Soul's Trav. 39 The brothel shriek, and the Newgate laugh.
b. comb., as brothel-haunting, brothel-keeper, brothel-like, brothel-master, brothel-monger; brothel-creeper (shoe) slang, (in pl.) suède or soft-soled shoes; brothel-house = brothel 3.
1954G. Smith Flaw in Crystal ix. 81 ‘Poncing about the place in those *brothel-creepers of his!’.. He always wore plush suede shoes. 1959‘A. Fraser’ High Tension ii. 24 He had immaculately creased grey flannel trousers and brothel-creeper shoes. 1959H. Hobson Mission House Murder iv. 31 Those ghastly suède shoes with two-inch crêpe soles and corrugated edges, known to the Edwardian élite..as brothel-creepers. 1969J. Fredman Fourth Agency ix. 85 Suède brothel-creeper boots.
1692tr. Sallust 17 The Rage of adulterous Lust, of *Brothel-haunting and other Bestialities.
1530Palsgr. 201/2 *Brothelleshouse, bordel. 1535Coverdale Ezek. xvi. 39 [They] shal breake downe thy stewes, and destroye thy brodel houses. 1599Shakes. Much Ado i. i. 256. 1678 Yng. Man's Call. 273 Thou shalt be..put into the common stews & brothel-houses.
1820T. Mitchell Aristoph. I. 255 One Philostratus, a *brothel-keeper.
1803Southey in Ann. Rev. I. 41 We will not transcribe Mr. Fischer's *brothel-like description.
1608Middleton Trick to Catch, &c., He's a rioter, a wast-thrift, a *brothel-master.
1566Drant Horace Sat. i. iv. 113 No *brothelmonger be.
▪ II. † ˈbrothel, v. Obs.
[f. prec. n.]
1598Sylvester Du Bartas ii. i. iii. (1621) 217 Who, like Lust-greedy Goates, Brothel from bed to bed. |