Ribald \Rib"ald\, n. [OE. ribald, ribaud, F. ribaud, OF. ribald,
ribault, LL. ribaldus, of German origin; cf. OHG hr[imac]pa
prostitute. For the ending -ald cf. E. Herald.]
A low, vulgar, brutal, foul-mouthed wretch; a lewd fellow.
--Spenser. Pope.
[1913 Webster]
Ribald was almost a class name in the feudal system . .
. He was his patron's parasite, bulldog, and tool . . .
It is not to be wondered at that the word rapidly
became a synonym for everything ruffianly and brutal.
--Earle.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Ribald \Rib"ald\, a.
Low; base; mean; filthy; obscene.
[1913 Webster]
The busy day,
Waked by the lark, hath roused the ribald crows.
--Shak.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
ribald
adj : humorously vulgar; "bawdy songs"; "off-color jokes"; "ribald
language" [syn: bawdy, off-color]
n : a ribald person; someone who uses vulgar and offensive
language
WordNet (r) 2.0
99 Moby Thesaurus words for "ribald":
Babbitt, Fescennine, Philistine, Rabelaisian, abusive, arriviste,
bawdy, blasphemous, blue, boor, bounder, bourgeois, cad,
calumniatory, calumnious, churl, clown, coarse, comminatory,
contumelious, crass, crude, cursing, damnatory, denunciatory,
devil, dirty, dysphemistic, earthy, enfant terrible, epicier,
epithetic, excommunicative, excommunicatory, execratory, filthy,
foul, foul-mouthed, foul-spoken, foul-tongued, fulminatory,
fulsome, gaudy, gross, groundling, guttersnipe, hooligan,
ill-bred fellow, imprecatory, impure, ithyphallic, lewd, looby,
loud, lout, low fellow, lurid, maledictory, meretricious, mischief,
mucker, nasty, nouveau riche, obscene, offensive, parvenu, peasant,
pornographic, profane, rapscallion, rascal, raunchy, raw, risque,
rogue, rough, roughneck, rowdy, rude, ruffian, salacious, scalawag,
scatologic, scurrile, scurrilous, slyboots, smoking-room, smutty,
sultry, unchaste, unclean, unprintable, unrepeatable, upstart,
vile, vituperative, vulgarian, vulgarist, yokel
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
bawdy, off-color
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