mawkes n.
1. a prostitute.
Wits Miserie IV 44: But touch me hir with a pint a sack, & a French crowne, if you like any of hir frie; Wel (saith she) you seeme to be an honest gentleman, go prettie maid & shew him a chamber; now maux you were best be vnmannerly & not vse him well. | ||
Cheats of Scapin Epilogue: The rugged Soldier [...] There hold impertinent chat with tawdry Maux. | ||
Street Robberies Considered 25: I began to keep, and one or other, I had the clever’st Mauks in Town. |
2. a slatternly woman.
New Canting Dict. n.p.: mawks an Abbreviation of the Word Malkin [i.e. ‘a badly-dressed woman’]. | ||
Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Mawkes. A Vulgar Slattern. | ||
, | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn) . | |
Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1788]. | ||
Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue [as cit. 1788]. | ||
Vocabulum. | ||
‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V 455: Mawk, A slovenly whore. | ||
Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 127: Mawk. – A slovenly, unclean harlot. | ||
World’s Toughest Prison 808: mawk – A slovenly, unclean harlot. |
In derivatives
slatternly.
New Canting Dict. |