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:
The White House domestic-policy advisor, Margaret Spellings—whom Karl Rove praises in the book as “the master of the short bawdy joke”—emerges as an acid-tongued score-settler.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026
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
A surprise cameo from Lizzo paid alms to their long friendship, and a bawdy slice of her verse from Drake’s “Rich Baby Daddy” proved she can own even a nemesis’ material with her charisma.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 22, 2025
The 52-year-old Manhattan, Kansas, native spent decades flying just under the mainstream radar, honing her bawdy cabaret act while waiting tables in New York, including at the still-missed Ruby Foo's.
From Salon ● Dec. 8, 2024
Her bright voice fills my room like the music of a lute, and she is like a troubadour with her tales, though none are bawdy or bad.
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
Nor do they wish to bowdlerize the bawdier passages reproduced in the script.
From Time Magazine Archive
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
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
Aided by the twinkle-toed hamming of Carol Haney and Eddie Foy Jr., The Pajama Game is eventually won by its prancing proletarians, buttons up as the season's brightest, bawdiest musical spree.
From Time Magazine Archive
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
