whore

[hawr, hohr or, often, hoo r]

See more synonyms for whore on Thesaurus.com

noun

a person who engages in promiscuous sex for money; prostitute.
Disparaging and Offensive. a person who is sexually promiscuous.
a person who sacrifices personal principles or uses someone or something in a base or unworthy manner, usually for money: a greedy publicity whore.

verb (used without object), whored, whor·ing.

to act as a whore.
to consort with whores.
to seek after something that is base or unworthy: those who practice idolatry and whore after other gods.

verb (used with object), whored, whor·ing.

to put to a base or unworthy use (sometimes followed by out): He’s whoring out his skills by writing for popular magazines.
Obsolete. to make a whore of; corrupt; debauch.

Origin of whore

before 1100; Middle English, Old English hōre; cognate with German Hure, Old Norse hōra; akin to Gothic hors harlot, Latin cārus dear

who're

[hoo-er]

contraction of who are: Who're the people at the next table?

Usage note

See contraction.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for whore

tramp, hustler, slut, streetwalker, strumpet, pro, escort, hooker, harlot

Examples from the Web for whore

Contemporary Examples of whore

When protesting with Women in Black or Peace Now, I might hear the words “Whore!”
Knesset Member Calls for Jailing of Human Rights Activists
Emily L. Hauser
June 1, 2012
Although the word is increasingly adopted by defiant sign-waving activists, "Whore" has the power to hurt us at a deep level.
Don't Call Me a Prostitute
Tracy Quan
November 23, 2010

Historical Examples of whore

Whore did she get this love for San Stefano, this love for its poor?
The Law Inevitable
Louis Couperus
The Dame afterwards says he "talked of the Whore of Babylon."
The Shakespeare-Expositor: An Aid to the Perfect Understanding of Shakespeare's Plays
Thomas Keightley
Art thou that miserable, sad, poor Son of a Whore, Jourdain?
The Old Debauchees. A Comedy (1732)
Henry Fielding
An Whore is a deep ditch, and a strange woman is a narrow pit.
The Life and Death of Mr Badman
John Bunyan
A pale-tinted, very careful and elaborate drawing of the Whore of Babylon, as Blake imagined her, next claims our attention.
William Blake
Irene Langridge

British Dictionary definitions for whore

whore

noun

a prostitute or promiscuous woman: often a term of abuse

verb (intr)

to be or act as a prostitute
(of a man) to have promiscuous sexual relations, esp with prostitutes
(often foll by after) to seek that which is immoral, idolatrous, etc

Derived Formswhorish, adjectivewhorishly, adverbwhorishness, noun

Word Origin for whore

Old English hōre; related to Old Norse hōra, Old High German hvora, Latin carus dear

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for whore

Old English hore "prostitute, harlot," from Proto-Germanic *khoraz (fem. *khoron-) "one who desires" (cf. Old Norse hora "adulteress," Danish hore, Swedish hora, Dutch hoer, Old High German huora "whore;" in Gothic only in the masc. hors "adulterer, fornicator," also as a verb, horinon "commit adultery"), from PIE *qar-, a base that has produced words in other languages for "lover" (cf. Latin carus "dear;" Old Irish cara "friend;" Old Persian kama "desire;" Sanskrit Kama, name of the Hindu god of love, kamah "love, desire," the first element in Kama Sutra).

Whore itself is perhaps a Germanic euphemism for a word that has not survived. Some equivalent words in other languages also derive from sources not originally pejorative, e.g. perhaps Old French pute, perhaps literally "girl," fem. of Vulgar Latin *puttus (but perhaps rather from Latin putidus "stinking;" see poontang). Welsh putain "whore" is from French, probably via Middle English. Cf. also Bohemian nevestka, diminutive of nevesta "bride." And Dutch deern, German dirne originally "girl, lass, wench." Among other languages, Greek porne "prostitute" is related to pernemi "sell," with an original notion, probably of a female slave sold for prostitution; Latin meretrix is literally "one who earns wages" (source of Irish mertrech, Old English miltestre "whore, prostitute").

The vulgar Roman word was scortum, literally "skin, hide." Another term was lupa, literally "she-wolf" (preserved in Spanish loba, Italian lupa, French louve; see wolf). And of course there was prostituta, literally "placed in front," thus "publicly exposed," from the fem. past participle of prostituere (see prostitute). Another Old Norse term was skækja, which yielded Danish skøge, Swedish sköka; probably from Middle Low German schoke, which is perhaps from schode "foreskin of a horse's penis," perhaps with the sense of "skin" (cf. Latin scortum) or perhaps via an intermediary sense of "vagina." Spanish ramera, Portuguese ramiera are from fem. form of ramero "young bird of prey," literally "little branch," from ramo "branch." Breton gast is cognate with Welsh gast "bitch," of uncertain origin. Cf. also strumpet, harlot.

Old Church Slavonic ljubodejica is from ljuby dejati "fornicate," a compound from ljuby "love" + dejati "put, perform." Russian bljad "whore" derives from Old Church Slavonic bladinica, from bladu "fornication." Polish nierządnica is literally "disorderly woman." Sanskrit vecya is a derivation of veca- "house, dwelling," especially "house of ill-repute, brothel." Another term, pumccali, means literally "one who runs after men." Avestan jahika is literally "woman," but only of evil creatures; another term is kunairi, from pejorative prefix ku- + nairi "woman." The wh- spelling became current 16c. A general term of abuse from at least 13c. Whore of Babylon is from Rev. xvii:1, 5, etc.

"to have to do with whores," 1580s, from whore (n.). Related: Whored; whoring.