woman of ill fame
- noun
- Offensive
:
mujer de mala fama (despectivo, literario)
- Rumors quickly spread, labeling her a woman of ill fame even without proof.
Examples
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Don't judge a woman of ill fame without knowing her story!
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In many old novels, a woman of ill fame is often shunned by the townspeople.
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He tried to defend the rights of every woman of ill fame in the city.
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She is a woman of ill fame.
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In many old novels, a woman of ill fame is often shunned by the townspeople.
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He tried to defend the rights of every woman of ill fame in the city.
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Rumors quickly spread, labeling her a woman of ill fame even without proof.
Synonyms
A woman who people think badly of because of her sex life
How Reputable
114
3.0
- Offensive
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a woman with a bad or disreputable reputation' is directly compositional from the constituents: 'woman' + 'ill' (bad) + 'fame' (reputation), so a learner who knows those words can infer the sense. The construction is somewhat formal/old-fashioned ('of ill fame') but semantically transparent and parallels common cross-linguistic patterns for 'someone of bad reputation.'
Etymology
Woman of ill fame comes from older English where ill meant 'bad' and fame meant 'reputation'. It was a polite, older way to say a woman was known for bad sexual behavior, so today the phrase means 'a woman with a bad reputation'.