A house or similar locale for prostitutes to receive customers and ply their trade either as employees or on commission; a house of prostitution. See brothel [SYN] for synonyms. Etymology: From the Old English breothan , meaning to go to ruin. In the 14 th century, a worthless person (male or female); in the 15 th century, a genderswitch had occurred and the term referred to a female prostitute; also in the 15 th century it referred to a prostitute; in the 16 th century it came to mean a prostitutes place of work.
Quote: Boris (Woody Allen) in Love and Death (1975): ' I went to a brothel once in my life. I got hiccups. It was over like... (snaps his fingers) that.'