Ribald

4 definitions found

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

  Ribald \Rib"ald\, n. [OE. ribald, ribaud, F. ribaud, OF. ribald,
     ribault, LL. ribaldus, of German origin; cf. OHG hr[imac]pa
     prostitute. For the ending -ald cf. E. {Herald}.]
     A low, vulgar, brutal, foul-mouthed wretch; a lewd fellow.
     --Spenser. Pope.
     [1913 Webster]


  
           Ribald was almost a class name in the feudal system . .
           . He was his patron's parasite, bulldog, and tool . . .
           It is not to be wondered at that the word rapidly
           became a synonym for everything ruffianly and brutal.
                                                    --Earle.
     [1913 Webster]

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

  Ribald \Rib"ald\, a.
     Low; base; mean; filthy; obscene.
     [1913 Webster]
  
           The busy day,
           Waked by the lark, hath roused the ribald crows.
                                                    --Shak.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  ribald
       adj : humorously vulgar; "bawdy songs"; "off-color jokes"; "ribald
             language" [syn: {bawdy}, {off-color}]
       n : a ribald person; someone who uses vulgar and offensive
           language

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

  99 Moby Thesaurus words for "ribald":
     Babbitt, Fescennine, Philistine, Rabelaisian, abusive, arriviste,
     bawdy, blasphemous, blue, boor, bounder, bourgeois, cad,
     calumniatory, calumnious, churl, clown, coarse, comminatory,
     contumelious, crass, crude, cursing, damnatory, denunciatory,
     devil, dirty, dysphemistic, earthy, enfant terrible, epicier,
     epithetic, excommunicative, excommunicatory, execratory, filthy,
     foul, foul-mouthed, foul-spoken, foul-tongued, fulminatory,
     fulsome, gaudy, gross, groundling, guttersnipe, hooligan,
     ill-bred fellow, imprecatory, impure, ithyphallic, lewd, looby,
     loud, lout, low fellow, lurid, maledictory, meretricious, mischief,
     mucker, nasty, nouveau riche, obscene, offensive, parvenu, peasant,
     pornographic, profane, rapscallion, rascal, raunchy, raw, risque,
     rogue, rough, roughneck, rowdy, rude, ruffian, salacious, scalawag,
     scatologic, scurrile, scurrilous, slyboots, smoking-room, smutty,
     sultry, unchaste, unclean, unprintable, unrepeatable, upstart,
     vile, vituperative, vulgarian, vulgarist, yokel