ill repute
- noun
- Many locals avoid the area because it is known for its houses of ill repute.
- house of ill repute
- woman of ill repute
And these new, you know, quote UN quote new sources, some of some legit and some of ill repute.
- And these new, you know, quote UN quote new sources, some of some legit and some of ill repute.
- Tenure ended in, you know, this sort of cloud of ill repute that had, you know, no small part due to like Jason and what had gone down.
Examples
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You don't seem like the type of guy that would be here in this house of ill repute.
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The public has a right to know what is goin' on out there... and what kind of payoff you're acceptin' to protect... that notorious house of ill repute.
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A man who lives in a house of ill-repute, hiding from his wife.
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It's a house of ill repute.
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You know that Billy Holiday was born in a house of ill repute?
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Well, welcome to the cathedral of ill repute.
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Again, they went to Middie's house of ill repute.
Fiction book (1996) -
The surrounding counties would issue permits for houses of ill repute faster than they would allow a house to be turned into a duplex.
Blog text (32) -
Irma and Otto were running what my dear old granddaddy used to call a house of ill repute.
Fiction book (1992) -
Indeed, one of the first issues tells a fictional story about a woman who had been employed in a house of ill repute who finally managed to work her way out of that life and get a respectable job as a servant in a kitchen.
Blog text (25)
Synonyms
Shame and loss of respect after bad actions
A bad reputation that makes people think less of a person or group
Lack of public support or approval
Loss of respect or good reputation
Being widely known for something bad
A quality of being not respected or trusted by people
The state of being seen as not respectable or having a bad reputation
A bad reputation that makes people think someone is dishonest or shameful
A state when many people think someone has a bad reputation
A quality of not being worthy of respect
The state of deserving public shame because of wrong actions
A state of being dirty, spoiled, or having a damaged reputation
Antonyms
How Reputable
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'having a bad reputation' is directly composed from 'ill' (bad, harmful) + 'repute' (reputation/opinion), so the overall sense follows straightforward adjective + noun composition. This is a regular, semantically transparent pattern with cross-linguistic parallels, making it readily understandable to a B1 learner who knows the constituent words (despite the phrase's somewhat formal register).
Etymology
The phrase ill repute comes from a clear image: ill means 'bad' and repute means 'how people think about you'. So someone in ill repute has a 'bad reputation'.