house of ill fame
1
9.9
- noun
- NSFW
:
casa de mala fama
- Many locals warned tourists to stay away from the house of ill fame at the end of the street.
Examples
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It's a house of ill fame.
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This is a house of ill fame, and I'm a fallen flower.
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Seriously, I don't see what's so terrible about Colonel Mustard visiting a house of ill fame.
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They were often connected with prostitution: an 1876 survey in Philadelphia found that nearly half of the drinking establishments in the city had formal or informal connections with "houses of ill fame."
Academic text (2008) -
Despite its elegant facade, the old building was actually a house of ill fame known for its disreputable activities.
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The novel depicted the struggles of a woman working in a house of ill fame during the early 20th century.
Synonyms
2
9.1
A place where people often secretly do illegal or immoral things
2
8.9
A place where people pay to have sex
1
7.6
A building where people pay for sex
How Disreputable
- NSFW
1
9.9
- NSFW
77
6.3
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is largely compositional: 'ill' (bad) + 'fame' (reputation) yields 'ill fame' (bad reputation), so a 'house of ill fame' can be understood as a house with a bad reputation — a disreputable place. However, the conventionalized link to a brothel is somewhat cultural and specialized, so learners who know the words will grasp the general sense but may not predict the specific 'brothel' sense without exposure.
Etymology
House of ill fame may come from old records where a house was said to have ill fame, meaning a home known for bad or shameful acts. So the image of a house with a 'bad reputation' explains why the phrase now means 'a brothel' or a place with a 'bad reputation'.