turn a trick

en-verb

turn a trick (third-person singular simple present turns a trick, present participle turning a trick, simple past and past participle turned a trick)

turns a trick (present singular third-person)
turning a trick (participle present)
turned a trick (participle past)
turned a trick (past)

The girls explained to me that they got eighty cents a trick, one payment for each metal check—“turning a trick” was how they described one session with a john.

1946, Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow, Bernard Wolfe, “Not too Far Tangent”, in Really the Blues, New York, N.Y.: Random House, book 1 (1899–1923: A Nothin’ but a Child), page 23:

City prostitutes say laws governing the sex trade are putting them in danger every time they turn a trick.

2007 March 22, Ajay Bhardwaj, “Laws put us at risk: hookers”, in Edmonton Sun (Canada), retrieved 2009-02-18:

(chiefly US, idiomatic, of a prostitute) To perform a sexual service for a customer.


turn tricks

turn tricks (third-person singular simple present turns tricks, present participle turning tricks, simple past and past participle turned tricks)

turns tricks (present singular third-person)
turning tricks (participle present)
turned tricks (participle past)
turned tricks (past)

By 1996, she was a hooker sleeping in the streets or at ratty hotels in Santa Cruz and San Francisco, turning tricks to get her next bag of heroin.

2004 March 21, Kevin Fagan, “The Homeless: Desperate search for Bridget—sister, mother, addict”, in San Francisco Chronicle, archived from the original on 2004-09-14:

They were turning tricks, doing drugs, and generally little better off than they had been before, except that they were keeping more of their money. But they seemed lonely, too, without the company of their pimp and the rest of his string.

2006, Steve Niles, Jeff Mariotte, 30 Days of Night: Rumors of the Undead, page 307:

[…] two sisters we always see at the club have started turning tricks to pay for heroin.

2010, Jennifer Egan, “Ask Me if I Care”, in A Visit from the Goon Squad:

(slang, intransitive) To work as a prostitute, providing sexual services for money.


oldest profession

en-noun

the oldest profession (plural not attested)

world's oldest profession
world's oldest profession#English

Alternative form of world's oldest profession.


bumster

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-bumster.wav

Today the sight of muffin tops over jeans or a sneaky flash of bottom cleavage might not seem too shocking [...], but when McQueen first sent out his models in bumsters, it was a radical departure and attracted many column inches of comment and debate.

2010 February 12, Rajini Vaidyanatham, BBC News Magazine:

And he would have relished the juxtaposition of the wedding dress with the infamous bumster trousers that are, as of this week, on show in the Metropolitan Museum.

2011 May 4, Jane Martinson, The Guardian:

(chiefly attributive) A pair of very low-cut trousers which reveal part of the buttocks.

Believe us when we say, the one thing that is most likely to spoil your holiday in The Gambia is constantly getting hassled by bumsters.

2006, Craig Emms, Linda Barnett, The Gambia, 2nd edition, Bradt Travel Guides, page 93:

In The Gambia, [...] hundreds of young, middle-aged, and elderly female tourists [...] flood the beaches and resorts of Senegambia, Fajara, Kotu, and Kololi each year in search of sexual liaisons with local young men known as bumsters.

2007, Ylva Hernlund, Bettina Shell-Duncan, Transcultural Bodies, Rutgers, published 2007, page 302:

there is concern in this traditional Muslim society about some of its social manifestations such as sex tourism and beach hustling by bumsters.

2009, Brian Boniface, Chris Cooper, Worldwide Destinations, Butterworth-Heinemann, published 2009, page 447:

In The Gambia, a young man who solicits money or favours from tourists, sometimes in exchange for sex.


incall

Some massage therapists only provide incall services because of the travel and setup times required for outcalls. A few massage therapists only provide outcalls because they do not have an office. When setting your rates, […]

2014, Stephen McEvoy, Becoming a Professional Massage Therapist: Getting to Your Destination, Stephen A. McEvoy, →ISBN, page 33:

A visit by a client to a provider of some service, such as a massage therapist or a prostitute.


outcall

outcalls (plural)
out-call (alternative)

I know this sounds stupid, but have a massage table. And enough sheets and oil. I had someone apply for an outcall therapist position that I was trying to fill and halfway through the phone call they informed that they didn't have a car...or a table.

2018, Kathy Gruver, Journey of Healing: One woman's path to healing self and others, Lotus Press, →ISBN, page 18:

A visit by a provider of some service, such as a massage therapist or a prostitute, to a client.

They charge for business telephones $25 and 2 cents per outcall. Let us see what that means. I do not suppose that any man who uses a telephone in his business makes less than five calls a day; that is 10 cents a day or $30 a year.

1909, Canada. Parliament. House of Commons, Debates: Official Report:

"Does the state (or the prison) get stuck with any telephone calls which somehow do not get billed collect?" Folsom: According to Pacific Bell, […] located within the institution. This coding is designated through the outcall phone numbers.

1990, California. Legislature. Joint Committee on Prison Construction and Operations, Anatomy of a Prison--Folsom: Examination of Selected Operational, Policy, and Fiscal Questions Affecting California's Prisons Today, page A-8

(rare, possibly nonstandard) An outgoing telephone call.


outcall

en-verb

outcall (third-person singular simple present outcalls, present participle outcalling, simple past and past participle outcalled)

outcalls (present singular third-person)
outcalling (participle present)
outcalled (participle past)
outcalled (past)

I […] saw as usual great numbers of Cuckoos […] most of them calling vociferously, each apparently trying to outcall the other.

Trying to outcall the other hunter could work, but it creates a competitive and possibly dangerous situation.

2009, Steve Hickoff, Turkey Calls & Calling:


streetwalking

Now, you know that the classical analytical explanation of agoraphobia of the early 1900s was that it represented a street phobia because the patient equated streetwalking with prostitutional activity[…]

1981, Donald F. Klein, Judith G. Rabkin, Anxiety: new research and changing concepts:

The trade of a streetwalker; prostitution that is not tied to a particular brothel or establishment.


long time

Long Time in Thailand or LT is the term used to define how long the lady is willing to spend time with you. This usually means it will be all night and into the next morning, and you can date her or just hang out with her.

2019 August 26, “What is Long Time in Thailand – Bar Fine Guides”, in Thailand Amigo:

(Thailand, Indonesia, prostitution) A meeting with a sex worker that usually lasts the entire night.


puella publica

en-noun

puella publica (plural puellae publicae)

Latin puella (“girl”) + pūblica, feminine of pūblicus (“public”)

(euphemistic, obsolete) A female prostitute.


nymph of the pavé

nymph of the pavé (plural nymphs of the pavé)

nymphs of the pavé (plural)
nymph of the pave (alternative)
nymph of the pavement (alternative)

Having made the discovery with about the same attention to secresy, that a nymph of the pavé uses with her lovers, or the boatswain when he pipes to grog, […] Mike O'Grady and his associate returned with merry faces to head-quarters, and reported a surprise of the enemy's camp very practicable.

1842 Nov, “The Hunchback”, in The Southern Literary Messenger:

Though, on the whole, a moral, quiet place – there being only two houses of ill-fame on both sides of the river, and not a "nymph of the pave" to be seen anywhere – yet during the long dark nights of winter, considerable mischief used to be committed by the more reckless of the young […]

1864, James Paterson, Reminiscences of "Auld Ayr.", Edinburgh, page 23:


lady of leisure

lady of leisure (plural ladies of leisure)


put on the red light

en-verb

put on the red light (third-person singular simple present puts on the red light, present participle putting on the red light, simple past and past participle put on the red light)

puts on the red light (present singular third-person)
putting on the red light (participle present)
put on the red light (participle past)
put on the red light (past)

Refers to the fact that a red light is traditionally placed in the windows of sex-related businesses; compare red-light district.

Roxanne, you don't have to put on the red light / Those days are over / You don't have to sell your body to the night

1978, “Roxanne”, performed by The Police:

(idiomatic) To advertise oneself as a prostitute.


cully

Uncertain. Short for cullion? Compare Irish cuallaí (“companion”)

The assumption tends to be the opposite: Whores constantly seek sexual encounters to fulfill their burning desires and also sometimes manage to wheedle gold out of their cullies.

2006, Laura J. Rosenthal, Infamous Commerce: Prostitution in Eighteenth-Century British Literature and Culture, Cornell University Press, page 2:

(historical, archaic) A male client of a prostitute; a john, a gonk.


asswhore

(slang, vulgar, rare) A prostitute who is willing to do anal sex.

culibonia

a prostitute who is willing to do anal sex


good-time girl

good-time girls (plural)
goodtime girl (alternative)
good time girl (alternative)

Just recently I found a story about a woman who was murdered in Niniltna back in 1915, a woman they called 'the Angel', one of the good-time girls who came up with the stampeders to mine the gold miners in the Yukon, and who came down to mine the copper miners along the Kanuyaq afterword.

2001, Dana Stabenow, The Singing of the Dead, →ISBN, page 104:

We hadn't been out of the bar very long when a small, young Korean boy came up to us and wanted to know if we wanted good-time girls.

2006, James R. Clark, American Soldier at 13 Yrs Old WWII, →ISBN, page 190:

In The Loved One (1965) Lyn is lost amongst the myriad of starlets playing funeral parlor hostesses, cosmetologists, and scantily clad good-time girls.

2013, Tom Lisanti, Glamour Girls of Sixties Hollywood: Seventy-Five Profiles, →ISBN, page 76:


pavement princess

en-noun

pavement princess (plural pavement princesses)

Out on Fort Street, a pavement princess was sitting on the sidewalk with her back to a lamppost and her legs stretched out.

2009, Stanley Evans, Seaweed on the Rocks, page 35:

Anyhow, most street chicks won't do B/D, S/M scenes. Too complicated, I guess. But, one night in (of all places) Bakersfield, California, Fireass spotted a pavement princess dressed in full dominatrix attire.

2010, H. A. Carson, A Roaring Girl: An Interview with the Thinking Man's Hooker, page 200:

(slang) A female prostitute who seeks clients on the street.


pimp out

en-verb

pimp out (third-person singular simple present pimps out, present participle pimping out, simple past and past participle pimped out)

pimps out (present singular third-person)
pimping out (participle present)
pimped out (participle past)
pimped out (past)

You can't pimp out a ho on no earth level.

2000, Ice-T, quoted in Josh Kun, “Quickfix: Pimps in Space”, CMJ New Music Monthly, ISSN 1074-6978, Number 84 (August 2000), page 12

2005, Spin Magazine
Spouting some of the most hilarious "urban" dialogue Quentin Tarantino ever wrote, Spivey (Gary Oldman) throws raging parties and pimps out feisty ho Alabama

2005 Jocelyn M. Pollock, Prisons: today and tomorrow
To be turned out, prostituted, pimped out, or turned into an inmate whore.

The young prostitute he pimped out.

2010, John De Vito, Frank Tropea, Epic television miniseries: a critical history, page 108

My mom pimped me out, for my fundraising skills, to the United Way for a fundraiser.

Scott likes pimping out his girlfriend to his friends.

I hate men that live off the earnings of the prostitutes that they pimp out.

(slang, US, transitive) To prostitute, take advantage of, exploit, use, to hire out or provide to others like a whore.


sex work

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-sex work.wav

Many were initiated into sex work through friends who were already sex workers, but others took the initiative themselves.

1999. Peter Aggleton, "Men who sell sex: international perspectives on male prostitution", Page 44

Social Control, Policing, and Sex Work I think it was the first, no second, time I got arrested.

2006. Leslie Ann Jeffrey, Gayle Michelle MacDonald, "Sex workers in the Maritimes talk back", Page 105

Sex work involves the exchange of sexual services, performances, or products for material compensation.

2010. Ronald John Weitzer, "Sex for sale: prostitution, pornography, and the sex industry", Page 1

My mother distributes condoms and outreach materials to those that do sex work for a living in the Tenderloin and Mission.

Any job in which sex or eroticism is involved, especially prostitution or pornography.


soapland

Japanese ソープランド, equivalent to soap + land.


bottom bitch

A Bottom Bitch has a social status above the rest of the girls

2002, Bruce Szathmary, Dolly's the Greatest Little Whorehouse in Nevada, →ISBN, page 41:

Now Niki my bottom bitch, she always come up with my bread / The last nigga she was with put stitches in her head

2003, “P.I.M.P.”, in Get Rich or Die Tryin', performed by 50 Cent:

"Then you gon' ride till I die? You gon' be my bottom bitch?" he asked.
"Yes," I responded, although I hadn't the foggiest idea what a bottom bitch was.

2006, Nikki Turner, Tales from Da Hood, →ISBN, page 241:

Although referred to by the title “bottom bitch,” she is the top prostitute on this team, privileged to sit in the front.

2010, Avi Steinberg, Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian, →ISBN:

The top ho is called the “bottom bitch.”

[2010, Vanessa Place, The guilt project: rape, morality, and law, →ISBN:

(slang, prostitution) The most successful prostitute under a particular pimp, who has higher status but more responsibilities.


house of accommodation

en-noun

house of accommodation (plural houses of accommodation)

As soon then as the evening began, and the shew of a shop was shut, the academy open'd; the mask of mock-modesty was completely taken off, and all the girls deliver'd over to their respective calls of pleasure or interest with their men; and none of that sex was promiscuously admitted, but only such as Mrs. Cole was previously satisfied with their character and discretion. In short, this was the safest, politest, and, at the same time, the most thorough house of accommodation in town

1749, [John Cleland], “(Please specify the letter or volume)”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC:


hetaerism

From Ancient Greek ἑταῖρος (hetaîros, “companion”) + -ism.

der

hetairism (alternative)
hetarism (alternative)

An Ancient Greek custom according to which a man's wife was forbidden to accompany him to many public events, including the banquets or symposia which made up a large part of Greek social life, and where men sought out the company of courtesans or hetaerae instead.


he-whore

“Probably a he-whore putting his name about so he'd have plenty of trade,” Raga panted.

1993, Harry Turtledove, Departures, page 21:

"Home-wrecker," said Dwayne with a deadpan gasp of mock shock. "My lover, the he-whore," Ted added.

1996, Karen Lee Osborne, William J. Spurlin, Reclaiming the Heartland: Lesbian and Gay Voices from the Midwest, page 64:

They ranged from "Ladies' Man" to "he-whore". Usually, except when he was feeling very contemptuous of himself, or when he had contributed blood to the Red Cross and felt very honorable, Wilkins thought of himself as a gigolo.

2007, Jim Harmon, Maniac Siren: The Man Who Made Maniacs and Silent Siren, page 73:

(colloquial, vulgar) A male prostitute; a gigolo.


public woman

a vivid portraiture of the public women and their clients

1975, Kamil Zvelebil, Tamil literature: Volume 2, Part 1, page 259:


joy house

‘You try her,’ Nulty said. ‘I ain't been in a joy house in twenty years.’

1940, Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely, Penguin, published 2010, page 18:


blowen

Poll Strokem, an old blowen, well known about the streets of London, was continually crying; see her whenever you would, she was all snot and slobber, like a calf's head on a hot summer's day […]

1840, Regular Slangsman, The Flash Mirror, Or, Kiddy's Cabinet, page 12:

Many a blowen of saloonic fame

August 1831, Bryan O'Toole, “Barney Moore”, in Blackwood Magazine:

(obsolete, vulgar) A prostitute; a courtesan.


sexpat

They weren't all just sexpats and drifters and former disgraced officers or old bartenders, none of which he should have mentioned.

(slang) An expatriate who engages in sex tourism.


pink salon

A kind of Japanese brothel offering fellatio.


sell one's body

en-verb

sell one's body (third-person singular simple present sells one's body, present participle selling one's body, simple past and past participle sold one's body)

sells one's body (present singular third-person)
selling one's body (participle present)
sold one's body (participle past)
sold one's body (past)


nightwalker

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-nightwalker.wav

* night + walker
* (vampire): since they are traditionally said to avoid sunlight and go out at night.

(archaic, euphemistic) A prostitute who looks for clients on the streets.


woman of the night

en-noun

woman of the night (plural women of the night)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-woman of the night.wav


woman of the street

woman of the street (plural women of the street)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-woman of the street.wav


tawaif

From Urdu طَوائِف (tavāif) / Hindi तवायफ़ (tavāyaf).

‘The tawaif has graduated from mere singing to dancing.’

1997, Kiran Nagarkar, Cuckold, HarperCollins, published 2013, page 11:

Characterized by its soft eroticism, mujra was performed by courtesans called tawaif who were an integral part of life in the Mughal court.

2008, Susan Dewey, Hollow Bodies, page 147:

And since the British period, the reputation of a common prostitute has dogged the heels of the tawaif.

2008, Gayatri Chatterjee, in Sahni, Shankar, Apte (Eds.), Prostitution and Beyond, p. 290

(South Asia, historical) A professional courtesan serving the nobility, especially under the Mughal Empire; (derogatory)


nookie-bookie

From nookie (“sex”) and book (“to make a reservation”), + -ie.


gorilla pimp

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-gorilla pimp.wav

(slang, informal) A pimp who is physically violent toward the prostitutes he manages.


sell oneself

en-verb

sell oneself (third-person singular simple present sells oneself, present participle selling oneself, simple past and past participle sold oneself)

sells oneself (present singular third-person)
selling oneself (participle present)
sold oneself (participle past)
sold oneself (past)

She'd never been forced to sell herself, she'd always had a secure home and job where she was valued, with no real responsibility.

2011 February 3, Lesley Pearse, Belle, Penguin UK, →ISBN:

(reflexive, euphemistic) To work as a prostitute.


lightskirt

lightskirts (plural)
light-skirt (alternative)
light skirt (alternative)

And now I want to know exactly what the lightskirt told you.

Ought to find a good lightskirt to keep you company.

(dated) A woman of lax behavior; a prostitute.


woman of ill repute

en-noun

woman of ill repute (plural women of ill repute)


sanky-panky

A male sex worker in the Dominican Republic.


hotsheet

Part hotsheet motel, part longterm transient housing, from the look of it.

2014, Bill Pronzini, Nothing but the Night:

(of a motel or a hotel) That rents rooms by the hour, often for prostitution purposes.


mud-kicker

mud-kickers (plural)
mudkicker (alternative)
mud kicker (alternative)

Lay off the broads and the high priced mud-kickers.

1974, James Vernon Hatch, Ted Shine, editors, Black Theater, U.S.A., page 446:

I drove through the Block to see what whore I could test my skills on, and I saw this black mud-kicker standing on the corner of Gay & Baltimore Streets.

1998, Emory Newkirk, Players of the Block: The World's Famous Block, That Is, →ISBN, page 16:

I'd guerilla^([sic]) my Watusi ass into a chrome-and-leather ho den and gattle-gun my pimp-dream shit into some mud-kicker's frosty car.

2013, Iceberg Slim, Airtight Willie & Me, →ISBN, page 17:

(slang) Streetwalker; a prostitute who looks for customers in public places, especially one who works for a pimp.


daughter of joy

daughter of joy (plural daughters of joy)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-daughter of joy.wav


croziered abbot

croziered abbot (plural croziered abbots)

(archaic, British slang) A pimp or brothel-owner who runs a brothel for the purpose of robbery or extortion more than for prostitution.


abbot on the cross

abbot on the cross (plural abbots on the cross)

(archaic, British slang) Synonym of croziered abbot.


abandoned habits

Pun on abandoned (“immoral”) habit and riding habit (“woman's garment for horseback riding”).

(archaic, British slang) The clothing worn for horseback riding by the prostitutes on Lady's Mile in Hyde Park (the carriageway along the northern bank of the Serpentine).


Covent Garden abbess

Covent Garden abbess (plural Covent Garden abbesses)

A reference to the brothels and prostitutes that were once common in and around Covent Garden in London.

(archaic, British slang) A procuress; a woman who procures customers for prostitutes.


Covent Garden nun

Covent Garden nun (plural Covent Garden nuns)


Swedish model

The combating of prostitution by criminalizing the buyer, rather than the seller, of sexual services.


creature of the night

creature of the night (plural creatures of the night)


wapping cove

From wap (“to engage in sexual intercourse”) + cove (“man”).

(obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) A man who frequently hires prostitutes.


Fulham virgin

C19 UK. See also fullam, another association between the part of London and criminality.


karayuki-san

karayuki-san (plural karayuki-san or karayuki-sans)

karayuki-san (plural)
karayuki-sans (plural)

Borrowed from Japanese 唐行(からゆ)きさん (karayuki-san, “Ms. Gone-to-China/abroad”).

ja-r

(historical) A Japanese girl from a poor agricultural region who was sent abroad to work as a prostitute.


nymph of darkness

en-noun

nymph of darkness (plural nymphs of darkness)

(euphemistic, dated) A female prostitute.


sex labourer

sex labourers (plural)
sex laborer (alternative)


prostibot

(science fiction, slang) A sexbot hired out as a prostitute.


fast sheet

I drove down South Parkway. Who did I spy coming out of a fast sheet joint at Forty-sixth Street? One Pocket with a young broad from big foot country.

2011, Iceberg Slim, Trick Baby, page 207:

When she couldn't repay the loan, he introduced Red to hardcore gorilla tactics and gangstered her into the fast sheets and the street game.

2012, James Robinson, Gospel of the Game, page 185:

(slang, chiefly attributive) A hotel or similar establishment catering to prostitutes.


carton girl

Named after the corrugated box that the girls and their customers use for bedding.

(Philippines, chiefly Cebu, slang) A female prostitute who has sexual intercourse with men using collapsed carton boxes as bedding.


fancy house

Turner probably visited Angel regularly. He paid for her fancy house.

2001, Dana Stabenow, The Singing of the Dead, →ISBN, page 239:

From what I've been able to pry out of her the fancy house customers weren't allowed to hit.

In turn as Liz's madam, Yolanda continually ran such a clean ship for Liz and made so much money, that she ended up with her own "fancy house".

2017, J. B. Fisher, The Blessing of Pequea Sam, →ISBN:


come upon the town

To be sure, it would have been more for the advantage of conversation had Miss Lydia Bennet come upon the town; or, as the happiest alternative, been secluded from the world, in some distant farm house.

1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter VIII, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume III, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 144:

(UK, obsolete, euphemistic) To become a prostitute; to turn to prostitution.


Bankside lady

A reference to the brothels that were once common in Bankside, Southwark (now part of London) in medieval England.

Come, I will send for a whole coach or two / Of Bankside ladies, and we will be jovial.

1638, Thomas Randolph, The Muses' Looking-Glass, act 2, scene 4:


Haymarket ware

A reference to the prostitution that was common in Haymarket area of London in the United Kingdom in the early 19th century.

You take the advice of a man who’s older than you, my boy, and has seen more of the world than you ever will! If she ain't Haymarket ware, hedge off!

Who was she, then, this girl? Or rather, what was she? An actress? A piece of Haymarket ware paid to alter her profession temporarily? If so, she was a most delectable item of merchandise.

"Women!" Christopher fumed. "They are nothing but vain parasites, every one of them after attention, wealth, or a title, or all three, and the worst of their sex are those in the ton. Give me honest Haymarket-ware anytime. At least with them you know what you are getting into. They only exact payment for services rendered, not for a lifetime[…]"

1995, Evelyn Richardson, Lady Alex's Gamble:

She looked like Haymarket ware. A veritable trollop. Good God, she had chosen something Mrs. Daphne Coleraine might wear!

Melody's velvet gray eyes were transformed instantly into boiling little infernos of fury. "How dare you, sir! Do you think me Haymarket ware?"

(dated, British slang) A prostitute, especially a low-class, on-street prostitute.


butcher boy

He had clearly become a satyr once again, as evidenced by the rosy-faced butcher-boy that Moore met upon visiting him. The word butcher-boy was, like telegraph-boy, a euphemism for a male prostitute

1997, Ellis Hanson, “The Dialectic of Shame and Grace”, in Decadence and Catholicism, →OCLC, page 81:

(uncommon, slang, euphemistic) A male prostitute.


Suzie Wong

Suzie Wongs (plural)
Suzi Wong (alternative)
Suzy Wong (alternative)

From The World of Suzie Wong, a 1960 film about a Hong Kong prostitute named Suzie Wong.

(dated, slang, euphemistic, mid-20th century) An East Asian or Southeast Asian female prostitute (particularly in Hong Kong and in Vietnam War–era Southeast Asia)


yellow ticket

“[…] When my own daughter first went out with a yellow ticket, then I had to go... (for my daughter has a yellow passport),” he added in parenthesis, looking with a certain uneasiness at the young man.

1914, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, translated by Constance Garnett, Crime and Punishment, part I, chapter II:

(historical) A personal identification document of a prostitute in the Russian Empire.


yellow passport

yellow passport (plural yellow passports)


pussy posse

Chosen for the alliteration, with pussy (“female genitalia”) in reference to prostitution.


business boy

And another cop once gently shook his head when someone started making up to me — it was a 'business boy' or chinpira, a teenage hoodlum prostitute, and so highly dangerous.

1993, James Kirkup, Me All Over: Memoirs of a Misfit, page 47:

The existence of organised brothels has not eliminated the street and bar prostitution trade in Amsterdam. […] went to an empty table in a far corner where, over some more drink, he explained that this was a bar for 'business boys'.

2012, Donald James West, Male Prostitution, page 305:


girlfriend experience

girlfriend experience (plural girlfriend experiences)

For many johns, the most popular feature of being with a prostitute is the so-called Girlfriend Experience, or GFE, where a client pays a prostitute to pretend to be his girlfriend during the session, making it seem more real than simply a business arrangement.

2011, R. Barri Flowers, Prostitution in the Digital Age: Selling Sex from the Suite to the Street, ABC-CLIO, →ISBN, page 151:

A sexual encounter with a female sex worker within a context where romantic intimacy is provided.


croshabell

Blend of crouse (“lively, bold”) + belle (“attractive woman”)

blend

[…]in Italian called a curtezan, in Spain, a margerite, in French une curtain, in England, among the barbarous, a whore, but among the gentle, their usual associates, a punk: but now the word refined being latest, and the authority brought from a climate as yet unconquered, the fruitful county of Kent, they call them croshabell, which is a word but lately used, and fitting with their trade, being of a lovely and courteous condition.

1607, “How George Read a Play-Book to a Gentleman”, in The Jests of George Peele; republished in The Works of George Peele, 2nd edition, volume 2, London: William Pickering, 1829, page 290:


scarleteer

Damn it, he wasn't going to stand by and be dished by any lousy scarleteer of a yellow devil; not much.,

Each scarleteer had her own cubicle and jism-caked pad.

1967, Hal Travers, Voyage Sixty-nine, page 305:


three-way girl

Three-way girls offered the widest array of services. One twenty-two-year-old prostitute declared to an undercover vice investigator in New York City, "I am a three-way girl."

2014, Jessica R. Pliley, Policing Sexuality, page 192:

A female prostitute who offers oral, vaginal, and anal sex.


FSSW

en-noun

FSSW (countable and uncountable, plural FSSWs)

(uncountable) Initialism of full-service sex work.


lady of the evening

lady of the evening (plural ladies of the evening)


nymph of the pavement

nymph of the pavement (plural nymphs of the pavement)


trick turner

(slang) A person who turns tricks; a prostitute.


sugar pimp

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(colloquial) A pimp who is relatively generous and good-natured toward the prostitutes he manages.


wh*re

HBUI has been awarded the DUMBEST MEDICAL WH*RE MEDAL by the S R Vietnam for ruthlessly aborting fetuses, and murdering babies and feeble old men and women, for the glory of the COmmunist Party!

1999 October 22, VIETT...@hotmail.com, “NOBEL PEACE PRIZE”, in soc.culture.vietnamese (Usenet), retrieved 2022-07-17:

you're the wh*re b*tch, leave my daughter alone, she's only been with Ted for 11 yrs that's not a wh*re but when you do not know who the father of your son is and half to get 6 DNA test done I would say that's a wh*re and Ted must have wrote^([sic]) this post from work sandy called him about all the post she did not wright it

2003 April 22, Dragonflylady700, “Sandy is not a wh*re like a b*tch i know”, in z-netz.alt.wichtig (Usenet), retrieved 2022-07-17:

If you think that women are b*tches, wh*res or evil, then the solution is not to be with a woman.

2015 October 28, ibsh...@gmail.com, “Iago and Misogyny”, in soc.culture.russian (Usenet), retrieved 2022-07-17:

2016 September 6, Stow Butcher, “Pretender to work for Magazine is a son of a wh*re.”, in ukr.politics (Usenet), retrieved 2022-07-17:

2017 July 2, Gay Is Mental Illness, “"Fu*k you bitch. I fu*king hate you. Stupid tranny looking cu*t. Kill yourself wh*re."”, in alt.politics.homosexuality (Usenet), retrieved 2022-07-17:


bar fine

(prostitution, Asia) a payment made by a customer to the operators of a bar that allows a dancer, hostess, or some other employee of that bar to leave work early, usually in order to accompany the customer outside the bar for sexual services


away-day girl

From the name of cheap "away-day" tickets introduced by British Rail.

This provision has particular implications for prostitutes working in the Paddington area where most women are thought by the police to be 'away-day girls', who travel to London from the Midlands and Northern cities.

1987, The Police Journal - Volumes 60-61, page 215:

These women live in Wolverhampton, Southampton, or other major cities and go to London for the purpose of prostitution and return on the same or the next day. As our interviews with prostitutes show, the away-day girl is more appropriately part of the fictional presentation of street prostitution.

1993, Nanette J. Davis, Prostitution, page 121:

Unlike Matthews' (1990) opportunity-driven "away day girls" who desisted in the face of a crackdown in London, the subjects of this study were, as a group, highly motivated and unlikely to desist.

2001, Robert R. Weidner, I Won't Do Manhattan:

Even the away-day girls get netted eventually.

2002, Jack Curtis, Point of Impact, page 53:

Hovering around the soggy sandwiches on this crisp June morning were the Kylie Minogue Sound-Alike Competition runner-up; the usual, baffled assortment of writers on promotional tours accompanied by twenty-something 'away day' girls exclaiming with vivacious insincerity the importance of 'the Vegetarian Personality' or 'Versailles; the View From Sweden'; and the actress Petronella de Winter in a slashed pink vinyl dress ingeniously welded back together with a blow torch and bits of bicycle chain — all the better to show off her recent nipple realignment.

The 'exodus' of women from northern towns to London is a feature of women's magazine stories on prostitution and the reader may here make an association of 'Away Day girls'.

2018, Lorna Ryan, Reading the Prostitute:

(UK) A prostitute who travels to another city to pick up clients, returning home either the same or next day.


bust down

en-verb

bust down (third-person singular simple present busts down, present participle busting down, simple past and past participle busted down)

busts down (present singular third-person)
busting down (participle present)
busted down (participle past)
busted down (past)
buss down (alternative)
bust-down (alternative)
buss-down (alternative)
bustdown (alternative)
bussdown (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-bust down.wav

Shorty bounce to the beat babygurl u got to
Make that ass work, work, work, work
Now break it down, bust it down, break it down
Bust it down, break it down, bust it down, break it down
Now that's work

2015 September 27, “BUST IT DOWN”, H Tycoon (lyrics):


oldest profession in the world

en-noun

oldest profession in the world (plural not attested)

Alternative form of world's oldest profession.


no money, no honey

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(slang) There will be no sexual intercourse without payment.


Nordic model

An approach to abolishing sex work based around criminalizing the purchase of sexual services.


Four Floors of Whores

Chosen for the rhyme. So called because brothels were situated on the first four floors of Orchard Towers until 2023.

4 Floors of Whores (alternative)
Four Floors (alternative)

Built in 1975, the 18-storey office building is notorious for its assortment of girlie bars, massage parlours and seedy nightlife that occupy four storeys, earning it the nickname “Four Floors of Whores”.

2018 July 1, P. Silvam, “Sex, spas, sleaze: what Orchard Road of Singapore hides in plain sight”, in South China Morning Post:

Orchard Towers, sometimes known as the "Four Floors Of Whores", belongs to what many would dub the seedier side of town.

2019 July 13, Andrew Koay, Tanya Ong, “I went clubbing at Orchard Towers. I felt slightly out of place, but then again, not really.”, in Mothership (website):

2023 July 4, Marielle Descalsota, “Nightclub doors at Singapore's ‘4 Floors of Whores’ are closing for good in less than 30 days.”, in Business Insider:

(Singapore, slang) Orchard Towers, which was known for its rampant prostitution.


short-time

en-adj

short-time (comparative more short-time, superlative most short-time)

more short-time (comparative)
most short-time (superlative)

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The average rate on short-time loans, based on these bank reports, is 10.75 per cent.

1913 September, Meyer Jacobstein, “Farm Credit in a Northwestern State”, in The American Economic Review, volume 3, page 601:

The hue and cry against the short-time test was started by breed competitors and was largely a matter of sour grapes, and breeders who listen to this cry are simply playing into the hands of their enemies. Whatever valid objections there ever may have been to the short-time test made early in the period of lactation has been met and entirely counteracted by the short-time test made eight months after calving.

1914, “Editorials”, in Holstein-Friesian World, volume 11, page 546:

It will be a reasonable requirement to insist that short-time users pay their charges in advance and that unless paid in advance before the tenth of the month the company may discontinue service.

1915, American Telephone and Telegraph Company. Legal Department, Commission Leaflet, page 526:

To many contemporary observers, especially to those who were short-time visitors, the bizarre bodily movements and ritual manipulations of the native spiritual practitioners were little different from arctic hysteria.

2007, Andrei A. Znamenski, The Beauty of the Primitive: Shamanism and Western Imagination:

Lasting a short time; of short duration.

In this higher approximation to the short-time effects, the shock is no longer stationary or trapped unless it is supported by a negative steady-flow back pressure;

1952, Technical Note - National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics:

The degree to which short-time changes in price are associated with short-time changes in supply of and demand for butter provides some basis for appraising the pricing system.

1957, Robert William March, Elsie Ruth de Noyer Anderson, Jack Eldon Klein, Analysis of Short-time Changes in the Price of Butter at Chicago, page 2:

To borrow some terminology from statistical physics, we are interested here in the “quenched” short-time behavior of p_y, as opposed to its "annealed" behavior.

1998, Richard Bucher Sowers, Short-Time Geometry of Random Heat Kernels, page 6:

Lines represent short-time trajectories with travelling time T < 14 days.

2017, Cang Hui, David M. Richardson, Invasion Dynamics:

Occurring with a short time of a specific event.


short-time

en-verb

short-time (third-person singular simple present short-times, present participle short-timing, simple past and past participle short-timed)

short-times (present singular third-person)
short-timing (participle present)
short-timed (participle past)
short-timed (past)

A freelance prostitute who was named the Indian Princess for the Indian costume she wore was a legend in Tong Du Chon. This young lady only “short-timed” officers generally in the rank of major or above.

2011, Herbie R. Taylor, A Boy from Barnhart: Times Remembered, page 316:

Thien even stole money from a farang who short-timed her and then passed out in his hotel room.

2013, Christopher R. Cox, A Good Death, page 119:

(Vietnam, prostitution) To hire or be hired as a sex worker for the time period that ends when ejaculation is reached.


meat dealer

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(Philippines, prostitution) A pimp or an escort service.


pornstar experience

en-noun

pornstar experience (countable and uncountable, plural pornstar experiences)

pornstar experiences (plural)
porn star experience (alternative)

A type of sexual encounter with a sex worker that is very similar to the type seen in a pornographic film, i.e., hardcore sex with a wide range of positions.


priestess of Venus

priestess of Venus (plural priestesses of Venus)

Many of the palki gāris used as hack cabs in Calcutta and other large towns, owned by speculators who know nothing of their business, including liquor-sellers, table-servants, and even priestesses of Venus retired from business, are drawn by scarecrows that recall in a reduced and shadowy form the outlines of Bewick's grim woodcut,—"Waiting for death." But the mercy of death is denied to them.

1891, John Lockwood Kipling, Beast and Man in India, page 214:

(euphemistic, dated) Synonym of prostitute.