Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Foul, abusive language.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Profane or scurrilous language or abuse; blackguardism.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A market near the Billings gate in London, celebrated for fish and foul language.
- noun Coarsely abusive, foul, or profane language; vituperation; ribaldry.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun
profane ,abusive language;coarse words
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun foul-mouthed or obscene abuse
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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One must have read much in Luther, one should have read all of Luther, and his "billingsgate" will assume a different meaning.
Luther Examined and Reexamined A Review of Catholic Criticism and a Plea for Revaluation 1904
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They talk forever and forever, and that is the kind of billingsgate they use.
The Innocents Abroad — Volume 02 Mark Twain 1872
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They talk forever and forever, and that is the kind of billingsgate they use.
The Innocents Abroad Mark Twain 1872
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We could argue that the commodification of violence and abuse is a problem plaguing society as a whole, and is not limited to comics alone — heaven knows all you need to do is to turn on talk radio or go to Capitol Hill yesterday to hear billingsgate that used to be beyond the pale.
BOOK VIEW CAFE BLOG » Justice League – Cry for Justice: A Very Short Review 2010
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I won't take sides in all this learned billingsgate- I'm just here to relate a rather amusing SCOTUS anecdote.
Should Congress scrutinize the aging Supreme Court Justices and lean on them to retire? Ann Althouse 2009
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Such low language from a Ph.D. is typical of the foul-mouthed, tasteless vulgarity that has corrupted television, radio, newspapers and other media with offensiveness and obscene billingsgate we used to hear from the mouths of naughty boys.
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Such low language from a Ph.D. is typical of the foul-mouthed, tasteless vulgarity that has corrupted television, radio, newspapers and other media with offensiveness and obscene billingsgate we used to hear from the mouths of naughty boys.
Robert Sutton: Title Tales: Weird Censorship and The No Asshole Rule (Part 2) 2008
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She was entirely free of what - based on the type location - we could term Marcottery: unremitting 'feminist' billingsgate.
"I have decided to remain unmarried because, frankly, divorce and the scrutiny that goes with it scares me." Ann Althouse 2007
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They exhausted the vocabulary of billingsgate in denouncing those guilty of this most henious of all sins, and charged them in plain terms, with being _afraid_ to investigate or to discuss the subject.
Cotton is King, and Pro-Slavery Arguments Comprising the Writings of Hammond, Harper, Christy, Stringfellow, Hodge, Bledsoe, and Cartrwright on This Important Subject E. N. [Editor] Elliott
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It appeared that "Jim Crow" had outraged his sense of African character so greatly that he could not restrain his passion; but vented it in the choicest _billingsgate_ with which his vocabulary had been furnished in the forecastle of the "Gil Blas."
Captain Canot or, Twenty Years of an African Slaver Theodore Canot
johnmperry commented on the word billingsgate
A large fish market in London, presumably where foul-mouths were in abundance
July 24, 2008
johnmperry commented on the word billingsgate
Billingsgate was the central London fishmarket for may years. It relocated a few years ago. I knew it reasonably well. My Grandfather was a wholesale fishmonger there. Some of his children and their children became fish porters. I worked there myself for a few weeks during summer break in my first University year (I was the very first of any of my paternal or maternal family ever to go to University. I went on to study medicine). The porters were UK famous for their foul language - I can tell you it was pretty awful. So bad was it that the expression 'to Billingsgate it' meant to swear with optimum strength. I bet some of this rubbed off onto their wives, although I never heard my grandmother swear.
I guess Billingsgate was one of the old London gates, like Ludgate. The market was nearby.
July 24, 2008
johnmperry commented on the word billingsgate
Billingsgate was one of the old gates into the city. Originally devoted to Belin
July 24, 2008
whichbe commented on the word billingsgate
No relation to Bill Gates, of course.
July 24, 2008
grant_barrett commented on the word billingsgate
This word was chosen as Wordnik word of the day.
November 11, 2009
bilby commented on the word billingsgate
"Its style is an almost pure Army billingsgate that will offend many readers, although in no sense is it exaggerated: Mr. Mailer's soldiers are real persons, speaking the vernacular of human bitterness and agony."
- David Dempsey, 'The Dusty Answer of Modern War', New York Times, 9 May 1948.
November 20, 2009