Forms: 3–5 sodomye (5 zodomye), 4, 6–7 -ie, 6 -i, 5– sodomy. [a. OF. (also mod.F.) sodomie: see SODOM and -Y.]
1. An unnatural form of sexual intercourse, esp. that of one male with another.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 9038. Mid þe vile sunne of sodomye yproued hii were echon.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), III. 5. Mempricius … forsook his wyf at þe laste, and vsede sodomye as a schrewe schulde.
c. 1440. Jacob’s Well, 162. Þe xiiij. fote depth is sodomye, þat is, synne aȝens kynde.
1536–40. Pilgr. Tale, 407. The prophet … which knew before of there sodomi.
1577. trans. Bullinger’s Decades (1592), 236. The abhominable sinne of Sodomie … is plainly forbidden.
1650. Bulwer, Anthropomet., 198. Wicked Sodomy, a sin so hateful to Nature it self that she abhors it.
1727. Swift, Poisoning E. Curll, Wks. 1755, III. I. 151. Heaven pardon me for publishing the Trials of sodomy.
1782. J. Brown, Nat. & Revealed Relig., I. i. 23. Polygamy must occasion … sodomy, bestiality, or the like.
1864. trans. Caspar’s Forensic Med., III. 336. It is no secret that the unnatural connection of men with animals, sodomy in the restricted sense of the word, still sneaks about.
fig. 1395. Purvey, Remonstr. (1851), 7. Symonie is gostli sodomie and eresie.
2. An act or instance of this.
1593. G. Harvey, Pierce’s Super., Wks. (Grosart), II. 271. Agrippa detesteth his monstrous veneries, and execrable Sodomies.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., I. iii. II. iv. (1651), 205. Those rapes,… Sodomies, buggeries of Monkes and Friers.
