scarlet woman

American  

[skahr-lit woom-uhn] / ˈskɑr lɪt ˈwʊm ən /

noun

1. a sexually promiscuous woman, especially a prostitute or a woman who commits adultery.

2. a symbol of pagan Rome or, derogatorily, of the church of Rome.

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scarlet woman British  

noun

1. New Testament a sinful woman described in Revelation 17, interpreted as a figure either of pagan Rome or of the Roman Catholic Church regarded as typifying vice overlaid with gaudy pageantry

2. any sexually promiscuous woman, esp a prostitute

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scarlet woman Idioms  

1. A prostitute, an immoral woman, as in Malicious gossip had it that she was a scarlet woman, which was quite untrue. This expression first appeared in Revelation 17:5, describing Saint John's vision of a woman in scarlet clothes with an inscription on her forehead, “Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth.” Some interpreters believe she stood for Rome, drunk with the blood of saints, but by about 1700 the term was being used more generally for a woman with loose morals.

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Etymology

Origin of scarlet woman

First recorded in 1810–20; from the Bible, in which an enemy of God personified as “the whore of Babylon” is described as dressed in scarlet and purple

Example Sentences

John Rain, the son, after a gassing in France, goes away with the married daughter of his father's one scarlet woman, Tannis.

From Time Magazine Archive

By some chance the grave of the scarlet woman adjoined that of a laborer who had been killed by a blast.

From The U. P. Trail by Grey, Zane

Ay forsooth!" answered the scarlet woman; "but one and one must make two, and many a one must be added thereto, before such mighty things come to pass.

From The Old Man of the Mountain, The Lovecharm and Pietro of Abano Tales from the German of Tieck by Tieck, Ludwig

It had been that unfortunate dress last night that had reminded him unpleasantly of the scarlet woman and the awful night of the fire.

From The Witness by Lutz, Grace Livingston Hill

Craig and Walters were dragging the prisoner across the bridge, the desperado fighting like a demon, and a scarlet woman following them with cries and curses.

From Policing the Plains Being the Real-Life Record of the Famous North-West Mounted Police by MacBeth, R. G. (Roderick George)