Definition of "whore"

The merciless Macdonald – worthy to be a rebel, for that the multiplying villainies of nature do swarm upon him – from the Western Isles of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied, and fortune on his damned quarrel smiling showed like a rebel's whore.

c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene ii]

I come looking for a jobBut I get no offersJust a come-on from the whores on Seventh Avenue

1969, Paul Simon, Simon & Garfunkel, “The Boxer”, Bridge over Troubled Water, Columbia Records

He cals her on a ſudden, all to naught; ſhe is a ſtrumpet, a light huswife, a bitch, an arrant whore.

1638, Democritus Junior for Henry Cripps, partition 3, section 3, member 2, subsection 1, page 610

So after he fucks the shit out of me, he tells me I'm lying about his whore not being Brad.

2004, Dennis Cooper, The Sluts, page 250

Vidal is at once more detached and more preoccupied with his own view, celebrating an aristocracy of sensibility constantly thwarted and ignored by those mere whores after fame, the statesmen and politicians.

1982, Daniel Hoffman with Leo Braudy, Harvard guide to contemporary American writing

By that time, Tejeda had already been accused of beating his wife, abandoning his children, living in sin with another woman, being a whore for the insurance lobby, and accepting bribes.

1990 June, Mother Jones Magazine, volume 15, number 4, page 9

a shameless hack—such a whore for the money—that he wouldn't even lend his name to his creations.

1997, John Irving, A Son of the Circus

I don't want to be a media whore," says Babydol. "I don't need to 'sell' my record — it will sell because it's good or won't if it's not

1999 October, Los Angeles Magazine, volume 44, number 10, page 186

"Begone," Clare shouted. She could not bring herself to kill in cold blood. "Begone, or I'll shoot." "Idiot whore," he shouted back. "You would not dare."

1999 August, Rod Garcia y Robertson, “Strongbow”, in Fantasy & Science Fiction, volume 97, number 2, page 4

I don't need that Lamont Cranston to tell me. Every Irishman knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men. We've known since the time of that rotten ould whore, Elizabeth the Bloody First!

2000 Spring, Pete Hamill, “The Fenian Ram”, in World of Hibernia, volume 5, number 4, page 72

Saxon curses rang in her ears. Dane, they yelled, Viking whore. We will have revenge on you.

2003, Helen Kirkman, A moment's madness

As for those whose hearts go a whoring after the world, and who set their affections on the things of the earth, they cannot love his appearing

1856, Matthew Henry, An exposition of the Old and New Testament, volume 2, page 42

Whoring after fame, rushing into print, "scoring a scoop,"— alas! some scientists are too human.

1967, Hawaiian Historical Society, The Hawaiian journal of history, volume 1

"That Jeroboam. He whores after power." "And you, my son, lust more decorously?"

1973, Herbert Tarr, A time for loving

Is there any distinction between a nation that whores after a golden calf and one that whores after a black Cadillac?

1976, Matthew Fox, Whee! We, wee, all the way home

If he whores after the new thing, he will only get it wrong and wind up praising the latest charlatans, the floozies of the New.

1978, Wilfrid Sheed, The good word & other words

For them, God is still in heaven, and we his sinful children are still whoring after the twin idols of modernity and materialism.

2010 December 28, Mordechai Beck, “Set apart”, in Christian Century, volume 127, number 26, page 22