Definition of "bawds" [bawds]

• Plural form of bawd. (noun)

Wiktionary.org : Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License

• "But there it was, love, disorganizing men's and women's lives, driving toward destruction and death, turning topsy-turvy everything that was sensible and considerate, making bawds or suicides out of virtuous women, and scoundrels and murderers out of men who had always been clean and square."
• "The theatres of Shakesepeare's time resounded not just to his great tragedies and comedies but also to more satrical works by the likes of Ben Jonson, Thomas Dekker and Philip Massinger, with their lively tales of bawds and coney catchers evoking the teeming life of the city."
• "In the heyday of the 18th-century brothels in Covent Garden, enterprising bawds such as Mother Needham would send scouts to pick out country girls newly arrived on the stagecoach, hoping to find work as seamstresses or ladies 'maids."