Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a woman.

c.1350		Tale of the Basyn (1836) xxiii: Lette go the basyn or thu shalled haue a clowte: He hit the wenche with a shevell aboue on the towte.
c.1367–86		Langland Piers Ploughman (1550) V Gii line 364: His wife and hys wench Bare hym home to hys bedde.
c.1386		Chaucer Reeve’s Tale line 4177: For Iohn, seyde he, als ever moot I thryve, If that I may yon wenche wil I swyve.
c.1468		‘Trial of Joseph and Mary’ Coventry Mysteries (1841) 134: That olde cokolde was evyl begyled, To that fresche wenche whan he was wedde; Now muse he fadeyrn anothyr mannys chylde.
1512		Hickscorner Aiv: My felowe promysed me here to mete But I trowe the whoresone be a slepe With a wench some where.
1523–4		Skelton ‘Garland of Laurel’ in Henderson Complete Poems (1948) 390: A wanton wench and well could bake a cake.
1530		Palsgrave Lesclarcissement de la Langue Francoyse n.p.: Verbes: Iape a wenche [...] It is better to iape a wench than to do worse.
1566		G. Gascoigne (trans.) Supposes III v: I promise you, to accuse the poor wench, kill the old man with care.
1578		J. Whetstone Promos and Cassandra II ii: Al a flaunt now vaunt it, braue wench cast away care, With Layes of Loue chaunt it.
c.1580		‘I.T.’ Grim The Collier of Croydon I iv: There be as good Wenches as you be glad to pay.
1595		‘W.S.’ Lamentable Tragedie of Locrine I iii: Saist thou so sweet wench, let me lick thy toes.
1607		Dekker & Webster Northward Hoe I i: Softly as a gentleman courts a wench behind an Arras.
1616		W. Haughton English-Men For My Money I 2: I tell thee Mouse, I knew a Wench as nice.
1623		Middleton & Rowley Spanish Gypsy IV iii: Show me the wench, or her face, or anything I may know ’tis a woman fit for me.
1636		W. Davenant Platonic Lovers II i: He kept a wench! [...] my friend was lewdly given.
1639		R. Davenport New Tricke to Cheat the Divell V i: Yes, my sweet wench Nan.
1640		H. Glapthorne Wit in a Constable Ii i: This is the maddest wench.
1651		T. Randolph Hey for Honesty III iii: The wenches I’ll tumble and merrily jumble.
1664		T. Jordan ‘Cheaters Cheated’ A Royal Arbor 38: Cham come away the rather, / ’Cause ch’ave got a wench with childe.
1679		Rochester ‘Letter from Artemiza [...] to [...] Chloe’ in Works (1999) 68: Hardly a Wench in Town but had her Fool.
1684		Eve Revived 115: The Jesuit whom this poor Wench had so villanously Cullied.
1699		Farquhar Love and a Bottle II i: A Wench! a soft, white, easy, consenting Creature!
1703		R. Steele Tender Husband V i: But this wench!
1710		R. Steele Tatler No. 30: n.p.: Tho’ I was tired with the Wench’s Story, I could not help being pleased with this Uncommon Mark of her Fidelity.
1720		C. Shadwell Irish Hospitality IV i: My Son is young and amorous, and the Wench was handsome, therefore he must be forgiven.
1733		‘The Lady’s Dressing Room’ Dublin Mag. 14: And up exhales a greater Stench, For which you curse the careless Wench.
1741		Richardson Memoirs of the Life of Lady H 24: Son, what could induce you to marry that Wench?
1744		‘Nurse Lovechild’ Tommy Thumb’s Songbook (1788) 45: I am a pretty Wench [...] And Sweethearts I can get none: / But every dirty Sow, / Can get Sweethearts enough, / And I a pretty Wench can get none.
1758		A. Murphy Upholsterer I i: Why don’t you go to Bed to the Wench at once?
1770		T. Chatterton Revenge I i: I fly her embraces, / To wenches more fair.
1781		C. Macklin Man of the World Act V: O! Betty, you are an excellent wench.
c.1792		R. Porson ‘Imitation of Horace’ in Whibley In Cap and Gown (1889) 67: What wench’s eyes / Gave him the wound, of which he dies.
1800		G. Colman Yngr Heir at Law IV iii: So your lover, my poor wench, has deserted you?
1811		J. Poole Hamlet Travestie I ii: He’ll flirt with any wench in town [...] goes nightly round the village wenching.
1825		S. Woodworth Forest Rose I iii: Lid Rose — Deacon Forest’s negro wench.
1830		J.B. Buckstone Wreck Ashore II iv: We must not part company without a salute from these pretty wenches — Eh, my little lass?
1848		Bartlett Dict. Americanisms 378: wench. In the United States, this word is only applied to black females.
1856		M. Griffith Autobiog. of a Female Slave 150: With a little riggin’ up, I think she’ll ’pear a rale good-lookin’ wench.
1865		A.J.H. Duganne Camps and Prisons 385: Yet it is only a ‘nigger’ wench, receiving customary flagellation.
1874		E.K. Wood Johnny Ludlow II 240: It’s not me and that wench we’ve got now as is going to stop together.
1880		G.R. Sims ‘Sir Rupert’s Wife’ Ballads of Babylon 28: Sir Rupert had married a madam, a play-acting, mincing wench.
1898		Irving Jones ‘Ev’rybody Have a Good Time’ 🎵 I went down to a house rent jamboree [...] I met all kind of wenches black and fair.
1902		H. Cannon [perf. Victoria Monks] ‘Bill Bailey won't you please come home?’ 🎵 Hear dat big wench squeal.
1917		‘Henry Handel Richardson’ Aus. Felix (1971) 25: A son o’ mine, who can’t see a wench with ’er bodice open, but wot ’e must be arter ’er . . . No, sir, no son o’ mine!
c.1921		in P. Smith Letter from My Father (1978) 109: On the bare plaster walls [of a womens prison] were written such choice rarebits by the girls as ‘If that nigger son-of-a-bitch dirty wench doesn’t stop sucking Kate and suck me I’ll rip her god damn cunt out.’.
1930		J.T. Farrell ‘The Scarecrow’ Short Stories (1937) 28: I never saw a wench stow away grub like you do.
1930		N. Lindsay Redheap (1965) 47: ‘Not a bad-looking wench at all,’ said Robert tolerantly.
1947		B. Schulberg Harder They Fall (1971) 159: How many times do you have to tell that stupid wench not to go to sleep in the kitchen.
1957		Kerouac On The Road (1972) 81: I was pleading with a dumb little Mexican wench.
1969		J. Crumley One to Count Cadence (1987) 252: Watch me, wench, I got wheels.
1974		D. Goines Swamp Man 51: She ain’t nothin’ but a fuckin’ nigger wench anyway.
1983		Eble Campus Sl. Nov. 5: wench – attractive female.
1993		B. Moore Lex. of Cadet Lang. 425: usage: ‘You bringing the wench to the party tonight?’.
2008		Simon & Price ‘Took’ Wire ser. 5 ep. 7 [TV script] You got the right Alan, wench?
2018		Twitter 20 Sept. 🌐 This wench is being coached and paid by Democrat operatives. This is a stall tactic to help Senate Democrats.

2. a promiscuous woman, a prostitute.

1512		Hickscorner Aiv: I mette with a wenche and she was fayre And of loue hertely I dyde praye her And so promysed her monaye.
1519		J. Rastell The Four Elements line 637: Then we wyll have lytell Nell, A proper wench, she daunsith well [...] And two or thre proper wenchis mo, Ryght feyr and smotter of face.
1560		Nice Wanton Aiii: This wenche can synge, And play her parte.
1607		Dekker & Webster Northward Hoe II i: Harke wench: chinck chinck, makes the punck wanton and the Baud to winck.
1614		Jonson Bartholomew Fair II v: Ay, ay, gamesters, mock a plain plump soft wench o’ the suburbs, do, because she’s juicy and wholesome.
1632		R. Brome Covent-Garden Weeded I i: I ’le dismiss the Gallant, and send you, Sirrah, for another wench. I ’le have Besse Bufflehead again.
c.1642		T. Killigrew Parson’s Wedding (1664) II vii: If she hears thou keep’st a wench, thou hadst better be a beggar in her opinion [...] for a wencher no argument prevails with your widow.
1651		T. Randolph Hey for Honesty III iii: The wenches will tumble and merrily jumble.
1672		Wycherley Love in a Wood II i: A man [...] may bring his bashful wench, and not have her put out of countenance by the impudent honest women of the town.
1686–7		J. Aubrey Gentilisme (1881) 163: The towne is full of wanton wenches, and... (they say) scarce three honest women in the town [F&H].
1696		J. Dunton Night-Walker Oct. 27: I was forced at last to turn one of her Wenches in Ordinary, and being young, was one of her first frate Strumpets, for she had them of all prices.
1711		R. Steele Spectator 2: He [...] can inform you from which of the French king’s wenches our wives and daughters had this manner of curling their hair [F&H].
1744		Machine 9: Shun the polluted Touch of Wench unchast.
1772		Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 533: Did not jove send down Madam iris, / The rainbow wench, whose tail on fire is.
1800		G.S. Carey ‘A Catch’ in One Thousand Eight Hundred 34: Say, is it not the fashion [...] To keep a wench and starve a wife.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 22 Oct. n.p.: The ebony features of a negro wench.
1879		G.R. Sims Dagonet Ballads 37: The husband? Oh, they say / He muttered a drunken ‘Curse you!’ and went off to his wench next day.
1880		G.R. Sims ‘The Earl’s Daughter’ Ballads of Babylon 65: A player wench she had for dam, who made the stage a mart [...] She sinned and played, and played to sin — a bold and brazen girl.
1894		A.C. Swinburne in Studies in Prose and Poetry (1897) 139: Mr. Whitman’s Venus is a Hottentot wench under the influence of cantharides and adulterated rum .
1928		C. McKay Home to Harlem 33: Woman! White man’s wench, you mean.
1934		H. Miller Tropic of Cancer (1963) 155: He [i.e. a pimp] walks nonchalantly over to his wench and gives her a big, smacking kiss.
1942		in G. Legman Limerick (1953) 3: Her lord and his wench / Pull a chain in the neighbouring room.
1945		‘Cats on th Rooftops’ in Mess Songs & Rhymes of RAAF 1939-45 1: He walks around St Kilda with his doodle hanging out, / And when he sees a wench, it ups and hits him in the snout.
1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 97: There are so many wenches set up in rooms for the sailor trade.
1968		T. Wolfe Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1969) 148: Jumping little high-assed mulatto wenches.
1975		R. Macklin Queenslander 217: You’ve lit the fires, wench. Ha!
1981		Eble Campus Sl. Fall 7: wench – female thought to be sexually promiscuous.
1997–2000		College Sl. Research Project (Cal. State Poly. Uni., Pomona) 🌐 Wench (noun) Derogatory term for a woman; synonymous with slut, bitch, ho.
2000		M.E. Dassad ‘Chickenhawk’ at www.cultdeadcow.com 🌐 Mook slammed his cock back into her and began banging my little wench, her screams increasing slowly, building.

3. (US campus) an unpleasant or unattractive woman.

1944		T. Thursday ‘Base on Balds’ Sports Winners Spring 🌐 ‘I shall settle with that wench once and for all!’ says Miss La Monte.
1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 220: Wench An ugly person, female.
1989		P. Munro Sl. U.

4. (N.Z. prison) a prisoner’s female partner or visitor.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 202/1: wench n. a female visitor or partner of an inmate.