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lewdness |
3 definitions found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: 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.] For if a priest be foul, on whom we trust, No wonder is a lewed man to rust. --Chaucer. So these great clerks their little wisdom show To mock the lewd, as learn'd in this as they --Sir. J. Davies. 2. Belonging to the lower classes, or the rabble; idle and lawless; bad vicious. [Archaic] --Chaucer. 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. Too lewd to work and ready for any kind of mischief. --Southey. 3. Given to the promiscuous indulgence of lust; dissolute; lustful; libidinous. --Dryden. 4. Suiting, or proceeding from lustfulness; involving unlawful sexual desire; as lewd thoughts, conduct, or language. Syn: Lustful; libidinous; licentious; profligate; dissolute; sensual; unchaste; impure; lascivious; lecherous; rakish; debauched. -- {Lewd"ly}, adv -- {Lewd"ness}, n. From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]: lewdness n : the trait of behaving in an obscene manner [syn: {obscenity}, {bawdiness}, {salaciousness}, {salacity}] 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).
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