Green’s Dictionary of Slang

mawkes n.

1. a prostitute.

1596		T. Lodge 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.
1677		Otway Cheats of Scapin Epilogue: The rugged Soldier [...] There hold impertinent chat with tawdry Maux.
1728		Defoe Street Robberies Considered 25: I began to keep, and one or other, I had the clever’st Mauks in Town.

2. a slatternly woman.

1607		R. West The court of conscience : Get home you Mawkes from off your gossips seat, / Take heed of medling any more of others: / Ile make your back, your sides and shoulders sweat, / And ierke you till you shed your Gossips fethers.
1725		New Canting Dict. n.p.: mawks an Abbreviation of the Word Malkin [i.e. ‘a badly-dressed woman’].
c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Mawkes. A Vulgar Slattern.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn) .
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1788].
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue [as cit. 1788].
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1927		‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V 455: Mawk, A slovenly whore.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 127: Mawk. – A slovenly, unclean harlot.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 808: mawk – A slovenly, unclean harlot.

In derivatives

mawkish (adj.)

slatternly.

1725

New Canting Dict.