[ noun ] a woman who engages in sexual intercourse for money <noun.person>
Bawd \Bawd\, n. [OE. baude, OF. balt, baut, baude, bold, merry, perh. fr. OHG. bald bold; or fr. Celtic, cf. W. baw dirt. Cf. {Bold}, {Bawdry}.] A person who keeps a house of prostitution, or procures women for a lewd purpose; a procurer or procuress; a lewd person; -- usually applied to a woman.
Bawd \Bawd\, v. i. To procure women for lewd purposes.
Lamos minimizes the comic characters here, but there are some expert comic cameos by Lois Smith as a blowzy, aging prostitute and Jack Weston as Pompey, that experienced bawd turned apprentice executioner.