molly house

English

Alternative forms

• molly-house, Molly house, Molly House, mollie house, mollie-house, Mollie House, Mollie house

Etymology

From the Victorian slang molly (“a male homosexual”).

Noun

molly house (plural molly houses)

1. (now historical, slang) A tavern or other establishment in 18th and 19th century England where homosexuals could meet for sexual encounters. [from 18th c.]
   • 1992, Rictor Norton, Mother Clap's molly house: the gay subculture in England, page 90:

     Just west of Charing Cross (where a molly named Tolson kept a brandy shop in the late 1720s, and where Whale and Horner were pilloried for keeping a molly house), we come to St James's Square and Pall Mall, ...

   • 2007, Katherine Crawford, European Sexualities, 1400-1800, page 204:

     In a vivid illustration of the dynamics created by sexual deviance, molly houses were a defense against the pressures of prejudice, but their visibility inspired new hostility.

   • 2007, Thomas A. Foster, Long Before Stonewall, page 99:

     One visitor to a molly house in the Old Bailey observed “men calling one another 'my dear' and hugging, kissing, and tickling each other as if they were a mixture of wanton males and females, and assuming effeminate voices and airs.

   • 2014, Mark Ravenhill, Mother Clap's Molly House, page 71:

     Just — we must fuck who we will. Else what's the point of a molly house?