brothel

[broth-uhl, broth-, braw-thuhl, -thuhl]

noun

1. a house of prostitution.

brothel

/ ˈbrɒθəl /

noun

1. a house or other place where men pay to have sexual intercourse with prostitutes

2. informal,  any untidy or messy place

Other Word Forms

• brothellike adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of brothel¹

First recorded in 1350–1400, for an earlier sense; short for brothel-house “whorehouse”; Middle English brothel “harlot,” originally, “worthless person,” from broth- (past participle stem of brethen, Old English brēothan “to decay, degenerate”) + -el, noun suffix

Word History and Origins

Origin of brothel¹

C16: short for brothel-house , from C14 brothel useless person, from Old English brēothan to deteriorate; related to briethel worthless

Example Sentences

Canas said lack of support services have allowed a drug den and brothel to operate in a hallway of his building leading to frequent overdoses.

From Los Angeles Times

Police said they received a complaint from a Wellington brothel last July about photos found on a client's phone, but ultimately decided the case did not meet the threshold for prosecution.

From BBC

Of course, that marriage ended in divorce, though it wasn’t finalized until after Odom recovered from overdosing at a brothel in Nevada in 2015.

From Los Angeles Times

She added that Robert Rodgers facilitated meetings between the women and sex buyers at a brothel, which he ran from his home in north Belfast.

From BBC

The conference tables were imaginatively reconfigured by the design collective dots for the surreal brothel scene, and the lighting of Marika Kent made wild magic without disrupting the minimalist scheme.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• bordello 
• red-light district