Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a brothel.

1593		Nashe Christ’s Teares in Works IV (1883–4) 230: Some one Gentleman generally acquainted, they giue admissuion vnto, sans fee, & free priuiledge thence forward in theyr Nunnery, to procure them frequentance.
1602		Rowlands Greene’s Ghost Haunting Coniecatchers D1: A Certaine queane belonging to a close Nunnerie about Clarkenwell.
1617		Fletcher Mad Lover IV ii: chilax: Ther’s an old Nunnerie at hand. cloe: What’s that? chilax: A bawdie House.
1623		J. Taylor ‘World runnes on Wheeles’ in Works (1869) II 241: It [i.e. a coach] is never unfurnished of a bed and curtaines [...] as it were in the Stewes, or a Nunnerie of Venus Votaries.
1633		W. Prynne Histrio-Mastix 389: If such a common Brothell or Nunnery of adulterous lecherous persons were now to bee erected, [...] the best Storehouse to furnish it, were our Play-houses.
1644		Mercurius Britanicus 22 5–12 Feb. 172: Usually the Master, he had a wife, and a daughter, or two, and they kept a Monastery, or Nunnery in a part of the Colledge, and those were such carnall arguments to the young Scotists, and Thomists; and you will not beleeve how the Fellowes, and the young Friers would resort to the Masters lodgings, and what logick they would use to prove simple Fornication lawfull.
1675		T. Duffet Psyche Debauch’d Act V: I zay cham not guilty, Prince Nick draw’d me in like a young Wench to a Nunnery.
1699		Farquhar Love and a Bottle III i: But an’t I an impudent Dog? Had I as much Gold in my Breeches, as Brass in my Face, I durst attempt a whole Nunnery.
1702		T. Brown ‘Letters from Dead to Living’ in Works (1760) II 259: It is well know, I kept as good orders in my house as was ever observ’d in a nunnery.
[1705		‘A Protestant Scourge’ in N. Ward Poems on Divers Subjects (1706) 287: For Nunn’ries were no more than sacred Stews, / Where the plump Clergy to refresh their Lives, / Made wanton Nuns supply their want of Wives].
1721		‘Anodyne Tanner’ Elizabeth Wisebourn (1885) 3: The Nunneries abroad being the Properest Academies one design’d for her Profession [...] she was therefore sent to Rome, under the Tuition of Signora the Lady Abbess of — .
1732		Johnson Caelia III i: This is our College, Madam; and these are the students: or rather, Madam, this is a Nunnery, and I am Lady Abbess .
1779		in Mimosa: or, The Sensitive Plant n.p.: [advert] In the Press, and Speedily will be published, in two Vols. [...] NOCTURNAL REVELS; or, The History of Modern Nunneries [...] with the Portraits of the most celebrated Demireps and Courtezans of this Period.
1784		Rambler’s Mag. July 278/2: He found [her] at constant matins and vespers with the sisterhood of the nunnery on the banks of the Meuse!
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1797		Sporting Mag. Mar. IX 327/2: A new customer [who] is a constant frequenter of one of the Nunneries of the neighbourhood.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1812		Spirit of Irish Wit 48: This was so palpable hit at the representative of royalty, who was a frequent visitor at her Nunnery.
1821		‘An Amateur’ Real Life in London II 182: Having visited a certain nunnery in the precincts of Pall-Mall .
1831		Quizzical Gaz. 19 Nov. 99/2: Charged with being found drunk in bed (not alone) at a notorious brothel [...] being further charged, by the Lady Matron of the Indulgence Nunnery, with acts of indecency to her.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 15 Jan. n.p.: Their steps are bent to a brothel to have some fun [...] a term for spending a night in one of of these nunneries.
1843		Satirist & Sporting Chron. (Sydney) 4 Mar. 3/1: He has [been] taken to the seclusion of a — (not a nunnery, in Low George-street, kept by a Waterman, [...] whose reputation is ell established for the management of such rendezvous.
1844		New Sprees of London 36: Cornwell-road. This is the residence of many of the blowens who frequent Fleet-street, Strand, New Cut, &c, and scarcely a crib in it [...] but is a nunnery.
1846		Bell’s Life in Sydney 5 Dec. 1/2: It was not long e’er our hero was joined by the frail trio, who inhabit a respectable mansion hard by the inn, bearing the venerable and virtuous cognomen of ‘Beddek’s Nunnery,’ over which the blooming Mrs. Griffiths presides as the Lady Abbess.
c.1850		Peeping Tom (London) 39 154/3: The Lady Abbess of St Giles’s, Mother Cummins, began life as a street-walker. Every buck and blood [...] were acquainted with her nunneries.
1851		Bell’s Life in Sydney 18 Oct. 3/4: The Inspector immediately accompanied him to the ‘nunnery,’ where hi« appearance produced tbe same unpleasant effect as a hawk generally does in a dovecot.
1888–94		‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) VI 1200: The Abbess of this open-thighed nunnery spoke bad French, but enough for me.

2. ? a women’s prison.

1679

Proceedings at the sessions [...] April the 30th, 1679 8: it was thought fit they should be sent to the Nunnery of Bridewel, rather than to Tyburn; and so they were Ordered to the Hemp-Office.