brothel
Americannoun
-
brothels
plural
noun
-
a house or other place where men pay to have sexual intercourse with prostitutes
-
informal any untidy or messy place
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of brothel
First recorded in 1350–1400, for an earlier sense; short for brothel-house “whorehouse”; Middle English brothel “harlot,” originally, “worthless person,” from broth- (past participle stem of brethen, Old English brēothan “to decay, degenerate”) + -el, noun suffix
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:
No-nonsense Maomao, a Tang Dynasty-era girl raised in a brothel who escapes servitude to parlay her apothecary skills in service of the palace, is one of the best female protagonists of all time.
From Salon ● Dec. 19, 2025
There, the hard-working seven-person cast of “Dark Noon,” which opened on Monday, spends much of the production’s 105 minutes assembling the edifices of westward-creeping American civilization, from home to brothel to church to jail.
From New York Times ● Jun. 18, 2024
He’s penned several children’s books and a novella called “The Legend of Diddley Squatt,” loosely inspired by the life of the late comedian Richard Pryor, who grew up in a brothel.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 4, 2023
How did you approach the different Louises: the brothel owner, the legit businessman, the centenarian?
From Washington Post ● Nov. 14, 2022
The sept tempted him no more than the brothel; his own gods kept their temples in the wild places, where the weirwoods spread their bone-white branches.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
How did this music surpass its muses from the holds to the plantation to the medicine shows and minstrels and brothels and jukes, to the Grammys red carpet, lavish video shoots and MTV Cribs?
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 1, 2023
Starting this weekend, brothels and bars will have earlier closing times and a ban on smoking cannabis on the streets in and around the Red Light District comes into force in May.
From BBC ● Mar. 28, 2023
The two countries have long been at odds over restitution for Koreans forced to work in Japanese firms and military brothels during Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.
From Reuters ● Aug. 19, 2021
The Tabor Opera House quickly grabbed the attention of a bustling, rowdy city full of competing theaters, saloons and brothels.
From New York Times ● Aug. 11, 2021
And by bad women I do not mean women who drink, or steal, or frequent brothels.
From Rosemary and Rue by Amber
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.
