subs. (venery).—1.  The female privities; also LADYWARE: see MONOSYLLABLE; (2) the penis and testes: see PRICK and CODS: hence STANDING WARE = an erectio penis; also occasionally (3) the paps. Hence TO HAWK ONE’S WARES = (1) to quest for men, and (2) to expose one’s charms (of women).

1

  1705.  WARD, Hudibras Redivivus, I. ix. 6. Till she had burnt with Claps and Poxes, More STANDING WARE than Sampson’s Foxes.

2

  1772.  BRIDGES, A Burlesque Translation of Homer, 4.

        Had well examin’d all her WARE.
    Ibid., 60.
Our money spent, and breeks so torn,
That for my own part, I declare,
I’m d—d hard switch’d to hide my WARE.
    Ibid., 64.
He huff’d thy WARE as well as mine,
And tho’ in every part he’d seen us,
He gave the prize to Madam Venus.

3

  1809.  MALKIN, Gil Blas [ROUTLEDGE], 148. As Beatrice was one of those ladies who was obliged to hawk their WARES … I was … shielded from any temptation to break the commandments.

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