brothel

American  

[broth-uhl, broth-, braw-thuhl, -thuhl] / ˈbrɒθ əl, ˈbrɒð-, ˈbrɔ θəl, -ðəl /

noun

1. a house of prostitution.

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brothel British  

/ ˈbrɒθəl /

noun

1. a house or other place where men pay to have sexual intercourse with prostitutes

2. informal any untidy or messy place

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Other Word Forms

• brothellike adjective

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

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

“Poor Things” features Bella, a reanimated woman who has to invent her life, and her guideposts are a prostitute, a brothel madam and a former actress.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 19, 2023

How did you approach the different Louises: the brothel owner, the legit businessman, the centenarian?

From Washington Post • Nov. 14, 2022

Then he placed his trust in another man to back his play — Littlefinger, a social-climbing Small Council member, brothel owner, and grudge-holder extraordinaire.

From Salon • Apr. 23, 2021

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

Related Words

• bordello
• red-light district