odalisque
1
9.9
- noun
- /ˌoʊdəˈlɪsk/
- NSFW
- I lay beside the odalisque and read until there was no longer meaning in the words.
Examples
-
Under the haughty gaze of a Turkish client, a white odalisque, naked apart from a white sheet drawn across her midsection, reclines in the foreground, immediately in front of a black woman with clasped hands.
Academic text (2004) -
I am lying on a section of enameled tiles encircling the odalisque who lies beside me.
Fiction book (1997) -
I call her an odalisque because that is what Father called her when I was a child.
Fiction book (1997) -
I have come back to this garden and the odalisque who kept what remained of my life in her stone body while I was gone.
Fiction book (1997) -
So she is an odalisque but not a whore.
Fiction book (1997) -
When I put this book in my knapsack and left St. Louis, I did not think of the odalisque.
Fiction book (1997) -
His wife was sweet-faced, Orthodox-born and -educated, and her headscarf and long skirt had an odalisque sensuality.
Academic text (2010) -
Phryne lay on her side, an odalisque, blue ribbons draped over her spigots so the painting would not offend.
Fiction book (2000) -
Obeying Edele's command to fetch her a bouquet, Niels comes upon the woman reclining like an odalisque in peasant dress:
Academic text (1999) -
In the artist's latest work, he captured the beauty of an odalisque reclining by the window, surrounded by rich fabrics.
Synonyms
26
9.1
A woman who lives with a man she is not married to and has less respect than his wife
1
9.9
A woman forced to work for another person without pay
Surface Forms
Etymology
Odalisque comes from the Turkish word odalık, built from oda meaning 'room' and the ending -lık meaning 'belonging to'. So it originally meant a woman 'of the room' — a chambermaid in a harem, which is why it later meant a female slave or concubine.