Search results
- Dictionarywench/wɛn(t)ʃ/
noun
- 1. a girl or young woman: archaic, humorous "in the new film about Columbus, she plays the token buxom wench"
- 2. a prostitute. archaic
verb
- 1. (of a man) habitually associate with prostitutes. archaic
Powered by Oxford Dictionaries
People also ask
What does wench mean?
What does wench mean in a poem?
What is a wench woman?
Where did the word 'wench' come from?
Wench is an old-fashioned word for a young woman or girl, a female servant, or a promiscuous woman. Learn more about its synonyms, examples, etymology, and usage in this dictionary entry.
noun [ C ] old use or humorous uk / wentʃ / us / wentʃ / Add to word list. a young woman. Synonyms. bird. chick. dame. doll. sheila Australian English informal. (Definition of wench from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press) What is the pronunciation of wench? Translations of wench.
noun. a country lass or working girl: The milkmaid was a healthy wench. Usually Facetious. a girl or young woman. Archaic. a strumpet. verb (used without object) to associate, especially habitually, with promiscuous women. wench. / wɛntʃ / noun. a girl or young woman, esp a buxom or lively one: now used facetiously. archaic. a female servant.
Wench used to mean young girl, so if you find someone describing a lovely wench in Shakespeare, it means a lovely girl. Wench comes from Middle English, and was a common word for girl, child, or servant. Over time it came to mean mainly serving girls, as in a bar wench, who serves drinks at a tavern. Eventually it came to mean prostitute.
- Etymology
- Noun
- Verb
- GeneratedCaptionsTabForHeroSec
The noun is derived from Middle English wench, wenche (“female baby; girl (especially unmarried); maiden, young woman; bondwoman; serving maid; beloved, sweetheart; concubine, mistress; harlot, prostitute”)[and other forms], a shortened form of Middle English wenchel (“girl; maiden; child”), from Old English wenċel, winċel (“child; servant; slave”)...
wench (plural wenches) 1. (archaic, now dialectal or humorous, possibly offensive) A girl or young woman, especially a buxom or lively one. 1.1. Jane played the role of a wenchin an Elizabethan comedy. 1.1. c. 1580 (date written), Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “[The Second Booke] Chapter 14”, in Fulke Greville, Matthew Gwinne, and John Flo...
wench (third-person singular simple present wenches, present participle wenching, simple past and past participle wenched) 1. (intransitive, archaic, now humorous) To frequent prostitutes; to whore; also, to womanize. 1.1. 1638, Thomas Nabbes, The Bride, a Comedie.[…], London: Printed by R[ichard] H[odgkinson] for Laurence Blaikelocke[…], published...
Learn the definition, etymology, pronunciation, and usage of the word wench in English. Find out its synonyms, descendants, translations, and anagrams.
A wench is an archaic term for a young woman, a female servant, or a prostitute. Find out the origin, usage, and translations of the word wench in this comprehensive online dictionary.
WENCH | definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary. Meaning of wench in English. wench. noun [ C ] old use or humorous us / wentʃ / uk / wentʃ / Add to word list. a young woman. Synonyms. bird. chick. dame. doll. sheila Australian English informal.