noun bil·lings·gate \ˈbi-liŋz-ˌgāt, British usually -git\

Definition of billingsgate

  1. :  coarsely abusive language

Examples of billingsgate in a sentence

  1. <the intemperate billingsgate to which the staff in customer service were sometimes subjected>

Did You Know?

From the time of the Roman occupation until the early 1980s, Billingsgate was a fish market in London, England, notorious for the crude language that resounded through its stalls. In fact, the fish merchants of Billingsgate were so famous for their swearing that their feats of vulgar language were recorded in British chronicler Raphael Holinshed's 1577 account of King Leir (which was probably Shakespeare's source for King Lear). In Holinshed's volume, a messenger's language is said to be "as bad a tongue … as any oyster-wife at Billingsgate hath." By the middle of the 17th century, billingsgate had become a byword for foul language.

Origin and Etymology of billingsgate

Billingsgate, old gate and fish market, London, England

First Known Use: 1652

Synonym Discussion of billingsgate

abuse, vituperation, invective, obloquy, billingsgate mean vehemently expressed condemnation or disapproval. abuse, the most general term, usually implies the anger of the speaker and stresses the harshness of the language <scathing verbal abuse>. vituperation implies fluent and sustained abuse <a torrent of vituperation>. invective implies a comparable vehemence but suggests greater verbal and rhetorical skill and may apply to a public denunciation <blistering political invective>. obloquy suggests defamation and consequent shame and disgrace <subjected to obloquy and derision>. billingsgate implies practiced fluency and variety of profane or obscene abuse <directed a stream of billingsgate at the cabdriver>.

Seen and Heard

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the art of making engravings on wood

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