bawdy
Americanadjective
noun
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of bawdy
Explanation
Bawdy describes humor that is vulgar or off-color. Things that are bawdy are a little inappropriate, intended to be funny, and definitely not the kind of things you want to say in school. Bawdy jokes are inappropriate, but they're not totally explicit or graphic — a movie with a little bit of bawdy humor might be rated PG-13, rather than R. Still, you probably don't want to recite bawdy poems in front of your fussy Aunt Irma, your clergyperson, or your math teacher. The exact etymology of this word is uncertain, but it is formed from the Middle English noun bawd, meaning "a lewd or licentious person."
Vocabulary lists containing bawdy
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"Hatred," Vocabulary from the poem
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Copper Sun
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
President Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal's parent company, its owner and two reporters, over a report claiming Trump wrote a "bawdy" personal note to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein in 2003.
From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2025
The best thing about “Players” is the cadence and camaraderie of the leads, whose jokes come fast and bawdy and feel authentic to a gang of people who’ve known each other far too long.
From New York Times ● Feb. 13, 2024
With roles in everything from bawdy and brutal live-action teen comedy to animated film to kitchen-based dramedy, Edebiri landed a spot as one of The Associated Press’ Breakthrough Entertainers of 2023.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 13, 2023
Love or hate “Poor Things” — if you see it as a sharp commentary on the patriarchy or simply a bawdy, over-the-top romp — that’s up to you, Lanthimos says.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 30, 2023
He beat his fist against his palm and railed against a bloody, bawdy villain—Claudius, no doubt.
From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein
But that’s also exactly why “Supergirl” should be bigger, bawdier and just plain better.
From Salon ● Jun. 27, 2026
The Sports didn't deal in news – just in something the net, for its sins, could do faster, bolder and bawdier in full, living colour.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 2, 2011
The language is strikingly different, less liltingly poetic than the Irish, but bolder and much bawdier.
From Time Magazine Archive
The $3,000,000 Deluxe Colored screen version of the play, written and produced by Playwright Stevens, lacks two of the Broadway principals and most of the bawdier jokes.
From Time Magazine Archive
Nor do they wish to bowdlerize the bawdier passages reproduced in the script.
From Time Magazine Archive
And when he does, they collide with all of the same calamity found in the best, bawdiest teen soaps from the mid-aughts.
From Salon ● May 17, 2025
The pier, once “one of the wildest, bawdiest waterfronts on the West Coast,” was again restored to life.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2024
Emcee Squared: When Joel Grey and Eddie Redmayne, who have played the Emcee several times in “Cabaret,” finally met, they discussed fear, courage and Berlin’s bawdiest nightclub.
From New York Times ● May 29, 2024
Just ask one of the most inventive rappers of the day, who also happens to be one of the bawdiest and the testiest — Ms. Minaj.
From New York Times ● Jun. 3, 2014
He ruled Kansas City in its bawdiest, gaudiest era, hired ghost voters by the thousands, bet millions on the ponies, hand-picked Governors and Senators, started Vice President Harry Truman up the political ladder.
From Time Magazine Archive
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
