of easy virtue

of easy virtue

Given to sexual promiscuity, especially in exchange for money. A derogatory euphemism said almost exclusively of a woman. Of course, a woman of easy virtue will be the first one to be blamed in such a situation, ostracized and condemned as she already is in the public eye. I think that Lord Stewart is spending time with a lady of easy virtue.
See also: easy, of, virtue
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

of easy virtue

(of a woman) promiscuous.
Easy in the sense of ‘sexually compliant’ is found in Shakespeare 's Cymbeline: ‘Not a whit, Your lady being so easy’.
See also: easy, of, virtue
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • no better than (one) ought to be
  • no better than (one) should be
  • no better than you should be
  • ought
  • business girl
  • badge
  • badge bunny
  • woman of means
  • a woman of few words
References in classic literature
There was one seedy French waiter, who was attempting to learn English in a house where he never heard anything but French; and the customers were a few ladies of easy virtue, a menage or two, who had their own napkins reserved for them, and a few queer men who came in for hurried, scanty meals.
His usual discourses treated of trotting horses, wine-parties in expensive restaurants, and the merits of persons of easy virtue, with a disarming artlessness of outlook.
A lady of easy virtue. Surprising a film has not been made of his life story.
It was a club that attracted all different types of people, women of ill repute and women of easy virtue who were known for their generosity.
He once confessed: 'While many men in power and public office are busy carousing in the midst of women of easy virtue and men of low morals, I, as a few others like me, am busy at my desk thinking about the problems of Nigeria and proffering solutions to them.
Even a woman of easy virtue has a right to refuse to submit herself to sexual intercourse to anyone and everyone, because she is not a vulnerable object or prey for being sexually assaulted by anyone and everyone.
Dazzled by the hedonism of post-war Paris and seduced by the lure of money and success, he embarks on a decadent life of easy virtue and dodgy financial deals.
Here the decoys of the poor sailors - the ladies of easy virtue - resorted and by their wiles led poor Jack into them, and the sequel generally was his departure fleeced of every single dime and often minus the best part of his clothes."
Why is it politically incorrect, even criminal, for the lower orders to bawl racist epithets and hint that adversaries' mothers were of easy virtue, while nobody remonstrates with the same classes for labelling David Cameron as "Posh Boy" (unable to understand poverty's pinch), a useless Upper Class Twit (because he went to Eton and Oxford and employs a good tailor) and Chinless Wonder (because he was born to a wealthy background).
COURT IN THE ACT: The Slaughterhouse Players' Michael Tuckey as Judge Lord Tophem Tippler, David Southam as the clerk to the court, and Caroline Williams as a 'lady of easy virtue'.
He says in Liverpool, uniquely, the word "tart" doesn't refer to ladies of easy virtue, "but is a very affectionate term" for a wife or girlfriend.
Still, speculation remains that Tiger has fallen out of love with golf, as well as big-breasted women of easy virtue.
It may be famed for its Goose Fair, but it is also notorious for its ladies of easy virtue. I was taken to several large hotels to see the painted and be-feathered 'birds'," reported a fine investigative journalist of the Edwardian era, without going into further detail.
At one time she would have been known as a scarlet women, a phrase from the Bible which by the 17th century had been adapted to mean a lady of easy virtue. Now she is known as something less complementary.
Read Mike Davies' review of Easy Virtue in Friday magazine