harlotize

English

Alternative forms

  • harlotise (non-Oxford British spelling)

Etymology

harlot + -ize

Verb

harlotize (third-person singular simple present harlotizes, present participle harlotizing, simple past and past participle harlotized)

  1. (intransitive) To act like a harlot.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:harlotize
    • 1746, Benjamin Franklin, “Letter II”, in Reflections on Courtship and Marriage, section 4, London: A. Thompson, et al, page 39:
      It is no extraordinary paradox, That a man may himself debauch his own wife, and a women harlotize with her own husband—But this subject must be touched with great nicety; therefore I shall only add, that even our most unobserved behaviour shall carry with it such a spirit of refinement, as to prevent that vulgar and libidinous degeneracy, which will infallibly blunt the edge of our joys, and in the end pall our relish.
  2. (transitive) To turn into a harlot; to prostitute.
    Synonyms: sell one's body, whore out; see also Thesaurus:pimp out, Thesaurus:prostitute oneself
    • 1597, William Warner, Albion's England, book 6, chapter 30:
      [] Yeat too too forcible I feare to be forgot of some, / For slaunder set on foote, though false, is talkatiuely dome. / Malicious (for thy malice is thy matter all in all) / Is it to harlotize, thinkst thou, a Goddesse wrong too small, / But thou must forge it from the Earth, euen from the Sheep-cote? Nay, []
    • 2011, Will Cunningham, How to Win a Family Fight, page 165:
      "Then that's what you are!" I shrieked. “You're a devilwoman harlot who is trying to harlotize and demonize the time-tested and decent practice of fighting that every decent..."
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.