subs. (conventional).—Sexual appetite: hence PROUD = amorous; lustful.—B. E. (c. 1696); GROSE (1785). See PRICK.

1

  [?].  Arthur and Merlin [Edinburgh Auchinlech MS., 11].

        Yong man wexeth jolif,
And than PROUDETH man and wiif.

2

  1598.  FLORIO, A Worlde of Wordes, s.v. Esser in frega, to be PROUD … as a bitch or a catterwalling as cats.

3

  1602.  SHAKESPEARE, Othello, iii. 3, 402.

        It is impossible you should see this,
Were they as prime as goats, as hot as monkeys,
As salt as wolves in PRIDE.

4

  1629.  DAVENANT, Albovine, i.

                        When I see her,
I grow PROUD below the navel.

5

  d. 1680.  ROCHESTER, A Ramble in St. James’s Park [Works (1718), i. 82].

        So a PROUD Bitch does lead about
Of amorous Curs the humble Rout.

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