Lewdness

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Lewd \Lewd\ (l[=u]d), a. [Compar. {Lewder} (-[~e]r); superl.
     {Lewdest}.] [{OE}. lewed, lewd, lay, ignorant, vile, AS.
     l[=ae]wed laical, belonging to the laity.]
     1. Not clerical; laic; laical; hence, unlearned; simple.
        [Obs.]
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              For if a priest be foul, on whom we trust,
              No wonder is a lewed man to rust.     --Chaucer.
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              So these great clerks their little wisdom show
              To mock the lewd, as learn'd in this as they. --Sir.
                                                    J. Davies.
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     2. Belonging to the lower classes, or the rabble; idle and
        lawless; bad; vicious. [Archaic] --Chaucer.
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              But the Jews, which believed not, . . . took unto
              them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, . . .
              and assaulted the house of Jason.     --Acts xvii.
                                                    5.
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              Too lewd to work, and ready for any kind of
              mischief.                             --Southey.
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     3. Given to the promiscuous indulgence of lust; dissolute;
        lustful; libidinous. --Dryden.
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     4. Suiting, or proceeding from, lustfulness; involving
        unlawful sexual desire; as, lewd thoughts, conduct, or
        language.
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     Syn: Lustful; libidinous; licentious; profligate; dissolute;
          sensual; unchaste; impure; lascivious; lecherous;
          rakish; debauched. -- {Lewd"ly}, adv. -- {Lewd"ness}, n.
          [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  lewdness
       n : the trait of behaving in an obscene manner [syn: {obscenity},
            {bawdiness}, {salaciousness}, {salacity}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  66 Moby Thesaurus words for "lewdness":
     Rabelaisianism, X-rated movie, animality, bawdiness, bawdry,
     blue movie, carnality, clitoromania, concupiscence, dirt,
     dirtiness, dirty movie, erotic art, erotic literature, eroticism,
     eroticomania, erotographomania, erotomania, fescenninity, filth,
     filthiness, fleshliness, foulness, furor uterinus, goatishness,
     gynecomania, horniness, hysteromania, iconolagny, lasciviousness,
     lecherousness, lechery, libidinousness, lickerishness,
     lubriciousness, lubricity, lust, lustfulness, nastiness,
     nymphomania, obscenity, offensiveness, pornographic art,
     pornographic literature, pornographomania, pornography, prurience,
     pruriency, randiness, ribaldry, salaciousness, salacity,
     satyriasis, satyrism, scurrility, sensuality, sexiness,
     sexploitation, sexuality, skin flick, smut, smuttiness,
     soft-core pornography, stag film, uteromania, vileness
  
  

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Lewdness
     (Acts 18:14), villany or wickedness, not lewdness in the modern
     sense of the word. The word "lewd" is from the Saxon, and means
     properly "ignorant," "unlearned," and hence low, vicious (Acts
     17:5).