wencher

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wench

(wĕnch)

n. Archaic

1. A young woman or girl.

2. A woman servant.

3. A promiscuous woman or a prostitute.

intr.v. wenched, wench·ing, wench·es

To consort with promiscuous women. Used of a man.

[Middle English, short for wenchel, child, from Old English wencel.]

wench′er 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.

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Noun

wencher - someone who patronizes prostitutes

adulterer, fornicator - someone who commits adultery or fornication

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References in periodicals archive ?

(Woodman equals "wencher" or "hunter--here of women." (20)) The Duke tells Lucio that he will "answer this one day" (163), be held to account for his slander.

Farther privileges: conflict and change in Measure for Measure

Burford's discussion of Constantia Phillips in Wits, Wenchers and Wantons: London's Low Life: Covent Garden in the Eighteenth Century (London: Robert Hale, 1986), 146.