lewd

(lo͞od)

adj. lewd·er, lewd·est

a. Preoccupied with sex and sexual desire; lustful.

b. Obscene; indecent.

2. Obsolete Wicked.

[Middle English leued, unlearned, lay, lascivious, from Old English lǣwede, ignorant, lay.]

lewd′ly adv.

lewd′ness n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

lewdness - the trait of behaving in an obscene manner

bawdiness, obscenity, salaciousness, salacity

indecency - the quality of being indecent

smuttiness, dirtiness - obscenity in speech or writing

lewdness

noun indecency, obscenity, impurity, vulgarity, depravity, pornography, smut, profligacy, debauchery, crudity, lechery, licentiousness, carnality, wantonness, salaciousness, lasciviousness, bawdiness, unchastity, smuttiness, lubricity The critics condemned the play for lewdness.

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

lewdness

noun

The quality or state of being obscene:

bawdiness, coarseness, dirtiness, filthiness, foulness, grossness, obscenity, profaneness, profanity, scurrility, scurrilousness, smuttiness, vulgarity, vulgarness.

Slang: raunch, raunchiness.

Translations

salacité

lascivia volgarità

lewdness

[ˈluːdnɪs] N → lascivia f; [of song, story] → lo verde

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

lewdness

n (= being indecent) → Anstößigkeit f, → Unanständigkeit f; (= being lustful) → Lüsternheit f; (of remark) → Anzüglichkeit f; (of imagination) → Schmutzigkeit f

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

lewdness

[ˈluːdnɪs] n → oscenità

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

lewdness

n. lujuria, impudicia, sensualidad, lascivia.

English-Spanish Medical Dictionary © Farlex 2012

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

There is not, indeed, a greater error than that which universally prevails among the vulgar, who, borrowing their opinion from some ignorant satirists, have affixed the character of lewdness to these times.

View in context

Perhaps my master might refine a little in these speculations, which he had drawn from what he observed himself, or had been told him by others; however, I could not reflect without some amazement, and much sorrow, that the rudiments of lewdness, coquetry, censure, and scandal, should have place by instinct in womankind.

View in context

"You have touched upon a subject, senor canon," observed the curate here, "that has awakened an old enmity I have against the plays in vogue at the present day, quite as strong as that which I bear to the books of chivalry; for while the drama, according to Tully, should be the mirror of human life, the model of manners, and the image of the truth, those which are presented now-a-days are mirrors of nonsense, models of folly, and images of lewdness. For what greater nonsense can there be in connection with what we are now discussing than for an infant to appear in swaddling clothes in the first scene of the first act, and in the second a grown-up bearded man?

View in context

The worst of lewd literature is that it seems to give a sanction to lewdness in the life, and that inexperience takes this effect for reality: that is the danger and the harm, and I think the fact ought not to be blinked.

View in context

Let the reader picture to himself a series of visages presenting successively all geometrical forms, from the triangle to the trapezium, from the cone to the polyhedron; all human expressions, from wrath to lewdness; all ages, from the wrinkles of the new-born babe to the wrinkles of the aged and dying; all religious phantasmagories, from Faun to Beelzebub; all animal profiles, from the maw to the beak, from the jowl to the muzzle.

View in context

His art never taught him lewdness, nor the love of wine, nor the wish to reap where he had not sowed.

View in context

Where a District Court jury convicted the defendant of open and gross lewdness, the conviction was valid despite the defendant's challenge to (1) the admission at trial of a photograph of a man that the victim identified as the perpetrator the day after the incident and (2) the victim's in-court identification of the defendant.

Evidence - Identification - Facebook photo

Andanar should explain the indecency and lewdness that are happening in his department involving his people using the fund, time and resources of the government.)

Pangilinan wants Andanar to explain for Uson's federalism video

Tramaglini was charged with public urination or defecation, discarding and dumping of litter, and lewdness, according to a Holmdel police spokesman.

Someone was defecating on a high school track. It was the superintendent, police say

In the past, NBC had delisted songs like Shakiti Bobo, Don't Stop, official visual of Wo, Wavy Level from Nigeria's airwaves on different claims of promotion of vulgarity, lewdness, nudity, drugs among others.

Again, NBC 'flogs' Olamide over new song, Science Student

Any lewdness or crudeness will be stamped out at the earliest opportunity." I hope it works.

Tenby's sex parties over