bawds
Bawds is the plural form of the noun bawd. A bawd is a person, usually a woman, who operates a brothel or otherwise profits from prostitution by procuring clients for sex workers, arranging terms, and managing the daily business of the establishment. The term emphasizes the intermediary role of the organizer or manager rather than the individual sex workers themselves. In historical contexts, bawds often acted as middlemen who controlled access to the services, money flow, and discipline within the house.
Historically, bawds were present in medieval and early modern European cities where prostitution was a regulated
In literature and culture, bawds are depicted as figures embodying vice or moral danger, particularly in plays
In contemporary English, the term bawd is largely archaic and is mostly encountered in historical or literary