Definition of "bawdry" [bawd•ry]

• Risqué, coarse, or obscene language. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "He has the prettiest _love-songs_ for maids; so without bawdry, which is strange; with such _delicate burdens_ of "dildos" and "fadings," "jump her and thump her"; ..."
• "Thus, Brooks lumps 1601 with Mark Twain's "bawdry," and interprets it simply as another indication of frustration."
• "He observes that the stanza "may be read as a nonsense-verse replacing some traditional bawdry which is represented by the rest of the song in the [Burns] MS. and MMC; but goose, hen and magpie are all low terms for a woman, and from the"