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A woman held in involuntary confinement for purposes of prostitution; loosely, any woman forced into unwilling prostitution.

A person engaged in procuring or holding a woman or women for unwilling prostitution.

The action of one who procures or holds a woman or women for unwilling prostitution.

A woman who practices unlawful sexual commerce with men, especially one who prostitutes her body for hire; a prostitute; a harlot. Wyclif.

; sinful; immoral; profligate; -- said of persons and things; as, a wicked king; a wicked woman; a wicked deed; wicked designs. Hence, then, and evil go with thee along, Thy offspring, to the place of evil, hell, Thou and thy wicked crew! Milton. Never, never, wicked man was wise. Pope.

A woman who has lost her husband by death, and has not married again; one living bereaved of a husband. "A poor widow." Chaucer. Grass widow. See under Grass. -- Widow bewitched, a woman separated from her husband; a grass widow. [Colloq.] Widow-in-mourning (Zoöl.), the macavahu. -- Widow monkey (Zoöl.), a small Sout…

The state of being a widow; the time during which a woman is widow; also, rarely, the state of being a widower. Johnson clung to her memory during a widowhood of more than thirty years. Leslie Stephen.

A woman; an adult female; -- now used in literature only in certain compounds and phrases, as alewife, fishwife, goodwife, and the like. " Both men and wives." Piers Plowman. On the green he saw sitting a wife. Chaucer.

Womanhood. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Of, pertaining to, or like, a wife or a woman. " Wifelike government." Shak.

itation or courtship. Thy virtue wan me; with virtue preserve me. Sir P. Sidney. She is a woman; therefore to be won. Shak.

ul; dexterous; specifically, skilled in divination. Fal. There was, mine host, an old fat woman even now with me; but she's gone. Sim. Pray you, sir, was't not the wise woman of Brentford Shak.

that city whose name was Simon, a witch. Wyclif (Acts viii. 9). He can not abide the old woman of Brentford; he swears she's a witch. Shak.

hantment; witchcraft. Great Comus, Deep skilled in all his mother's witcheries. Milton. A woman infamous . . . for witcheries. Sir W. Scott.

The belly; the abdomen. [Obs.] Chaucer. And he coveted to fill his woman of the cods that the hogs eat, and no man gave him. Wyclif (Luke xv. 16). An I had but a belly of any indifferency, I were simply the most active fellow in Europe. My womb, my womb, my womb undoes me. Shak.

pl. of Woman.

eless; useless; vile; mean; as, a worthless garment; a worthless ship; a worthless man or woman; a worthless magistrate. 'T is a worthless world to win or lose. Byron. -- Worth"less*ly, adv. -- Worth"less*ness, n.