harlotize

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From harlot +‎ -ize.

Verb

harlotize (third-person singular simple present harlotizes, present participle harlotizing, simple past and past participle harlotized)

  1. (intransitive) To act like a harlot.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:harlotize
    • 1746, Benjamin Franklin, “Letter II”, in Reflections on Courtship and Marriage[1], section 4, London: A. Thompson, et al, page 39:
      It is no extraordinary paradox, That a man may himſelf debauch his own wife, and a woman harlotize with her own huſband.—But this ſubject muſt be touched with great nicety; therefore I ſhall only add, that even our moſt unobſerved behaviour ſhall carry with it ſuch a ſpirit of refinement, as to prevent that vulgar and libidinous degeneracy, which will infallibly blunt the edge of our joys, and in the end pall our reliſh.
  2. (transitive) To turn into a harlot; to prostitute.
    Synonyms: sell one's body, whore out; see also Thesaurus:pimp out, Thesaurus:prostitute oneself
    • 1597, William Warner, Albion's England[2], book 6, chapter 30:
      [] Yeat too too forcible I feare to be forgot of some, / For slaunder set on foote, though false, is talkatiuely dome. / Malicious (for thy malice is thy matter all in all) / Is it to harlotize, thinkst thou, a Goddesse wrong too small, / But thou must forge it from the Earth, euen from the Sheep-cote? Nay, []
    • 2011, Will Cunningham, How to Win a Family Fight, page 165:
      "Then that's what you are!" I shrieked. “You're a devilwoman harlot who is trying to harlotize and demonize the time-tested and decent practice of fighting that every decent..."