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wench - 5 dictionary results

wench

  [wench]
Use wench in a Sentence
–noun
1. a country lass or working girl: The milkmaid was a healthy wench.
2. Usually Facetious. a girl or young woman.
3. Archaic. a strumpet.
–verb (used without object)
4. to associate, esp. habitually, with promiscuous women.
Origin:
1250–1300; ME, back formation from wenchel, OE wencel child, akin to wancol tottering, said of a child learning to walk; akin to G wankeln to totter

Related forms:
wencher, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To wench
wench   (wěnch)   
n.  
  1. A young woman or girl, especially a peasant girl.
  2. A woman servant.
  3. A wanton woman.
intr.v.   wenched, wench·ing, wench·es
To consort or engage in sex with wanton women. Used of a man.

[Middle English, short for wenchel, child, from Old English wencel.]
wench'er n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Wench

Wench\, n. [OE. wenche, for older wenchel a child, originally, weak, tottering; cf. AS. wencle a maid, a daughter, wencel a pupil, orphan, wincel, winclu, children, offspring, wencel weak, wancol unstable, OHG. wanchol; perhaps akin to E. wink. See Wink.]

1. A young woman; a girl; a maiden. --Shak.

Lord and lady, groom and wench. --Chaucer.

That they may send again My most sweet wench, and gifts to boot. --Chapman.

He was received by the daughter of the house, a pretty, buxom, blue-eyed little wench. --W. Black.

2. A low, vicious young woman; a drab; a strumpet.

She shall be called his wench or his leman. --Chaucer.

It is not a digression to talk of bawds in a discourse upon wenches. --Spectator.

3. A colored woman; a negress. [U. S.]

Wench

Wench\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Wenched; p. pr. & vb. n. Wenching.] To frequent the company of wenches, or women of ill fame.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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wench 
c.1290 wenche "girl or young woman," shortened from wenchel "child" (12c.), from O.E. wencel, probably related to wancol "unsteady, fickle, weak," and cognate with O.N. vakr "child, weak person," O.H.G. wanchal "fickle." The word degenerated through being used in ref. to servant girls, and by 1362 was being used in a sense of "woman of loose morals, mistress." The verb meaning "to associate with common women" is from 1599.
"The wenche is nat dead, but slepith." [Wyclif, Matt. ix.24, c.1380]
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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