Word.ws English Dictionary

harlot

/ˈhɑːlət//ˈhɑɹlət/

harlot noun: a female prostitute.

Noun

harlot (plural harlots)

  1. (dated, derogatory, offensive) A female prostitute.
    • This day (great Duke) ſhe ſhut the doores vpon me, / While she with Harlots feaſted in my housſe.c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
    • The bastard of a harlot, born in a brothel, suckled on gin, and familiar from earliest infancy with all the bestialities of debauch,[…]1890, William Booth, chapter 6, in In Darkest England and the Way Out
  2. (derogatory, offensive) A female who is considered promiscuous.
    Synonyms:
    skeezer, slut, whore, hussy, NB: All terms are usually pejorative unless stated otherwise., 304, alley cat, alleycat, amorette, amoret
  3. (obsolete) A churl; a common man; a person, male or female, of low birth, especially one given to low conduct.
    • By suche ydle and wicked harlottes the enheritaunce of Christe is troden vnder fote.1544, R. Tracy, Supplycacion to Kynge Henry VIII
    • When lust doth rage it like a canker frets;
      It topsie turvie, upside downe all sets;[…]
      Where once it reigneth, there it maketh sure,
      A man a harlot, and a wife a whoore;a. 1653, “Joseph Tempted to Adultery”, in Zion's Flowers, published 1855, page 103

Verb

harlot (third-person singular simple present harlots, present participle harloting or harlotting, simple past and past participle harloted or harlotted)

  1. (intransitive) To play the harlot; to practice lewdness.
    • […] they that spend their youth in loitering, bezzling, and harlotting, their studies in unprofitable questions, and barbarous sophistry1614, John Milton, Animadversions upon the Remonstrants Defense against Smectymnuus

Adjective

harlot (comparative more harlot, superlative most harlot)

  1. (uncommon) Wanton; lewd; low; base.
    • The intellection in it, kiddo—the intellection.... That most harlot of harlots... talking of me, laughing at me... I'll kill her....1943, Nick Joaquin, “It was Later than we Thought”, in Philippine Review

harlot meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

harlot in Hindi

a female prostitute
रण्डी raṇḍī, गणिका gaṇikā, वेश्या veśyā, कुलटा kulṭā

harlot in Tamil

harlot, prostitute
பட்டி paṭṭi

harlot in Marathi

harlot, prostitute
वेश्या veśyā
harlot, prostitute, dancing girl
नायकीण nāykīṇ

harlot in Urdu

بیسوا, چھنال, فاحشہ, فاجرہ, فاسقہ, کسبی
More languagesFewer languages
harlot in Telugu
లంజ lañja
harlot in Malayalam
ചൂള cūḷa
harlot in Kannada
ಬೇಟಕಾರ್ತಿ
harlot in Sanskrit
वारा vārā, पुंश्चली puṃścalī́
harlot in Persian
روسپی ruspi, هرزه harze, جنده jende, فاحشه fâheše

Examples of harlot in a sentence

  • Truly, My Satan, thou art but a Dunce, / And dost not know the Garment from the Man. / Every Harlot was a Virgin once, / Nor canst thou ever change Kate into Nan.1908, William Blake, To the Accuser Who Is the God of This World:
  • He was stopped by a painted harlot, who put her hand on his arm; he pushed her violently away with brutal words.1915, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter LXXVII, in Of Human Bondage, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC:
  • O fine religious, decent folk, / In Virtue’s flaunting gold and scarlet, / I sneer between two puffs of smoke,— / Give me the publican and harlot.1918, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Hail! Childish Slaves Of Social Rules”, in New Poems and Variant Readings, London: Chatto & Windus:
  • Charlotte the Harlot show me your legs, / Charlotte the Harlot take me to bed. / Charlotte the Harlot let me see blood, / Charlotte the Harlot let me see love.1980, Dave Murray, “Charlotte the Harlot”, in Iron Maiden, performed by Iron Maiden:

Synonyms of harlot

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of harlot

Forms of harlot

Noun
pluralharlots
Verb
third-person singular presentharlots
present participleharloting
present participleharlotting
past participleharloted
pastharloted
past participleharlotted
pastharlotted
Adjective
comparativemore harlot
superlativemost harlot

Origin of harlot

From Middle English harlot, from Old French harlot, herlot, arlot (“vagabond; tramp”), of obscure origin. Likely to be ultimately of Germanic origin, either from a derivation of *harjaz (“army; camp; warrior; military leader”) or from a diminutive of *karilaz (“man; fellow”). Compare English carlot.

Words formed from harlot

Questions about harlot

What does harlot mean?
Harlot means a female prostitute.
What is harlot in Hindi?
Harlot in Hindi is रण्डी (raṇḍī), गणिका (gaṇikā), वेश्या (veśyā). See Harlot meaning in Hindi.
How do you use harlot in a sentence?
Truly, My Satan, thou art but a Dunce, / And dost not know the Garment from the Man. / Every Harlot was a Virgin once, / Nor canst thou ever change Kate into Nan.
What part of speech is harlot?
Harlot can be a noun, a verb or an adjective.
How do you pronounce harlot?
Harlot is pronounced /ˈhɑːlət/ (UK).
What is the plural of harlot?
The plural of harlot is harlots.

Words near harlot in the dictionary

  1. Harlings
  2. Harlington
  3. Harlins
  4. Harlivy
  5. Harloff
  6. harlot
  7. harloted
  8. harloting
  9. harlotise
  10. harlotised
  11. harlotises

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: harlot (page history and authors); பட்டி (Tamil) (page history and authors); नायकीण (Marathi) (page history and authors); harlot (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ചൂള (Malayalam) (page history and authors); harlot (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); पुंश्चली (Sanskrit) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-harlot.wav, en-us-harlot.ogg.

Cite this entry: “harlot.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/harlot. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.