Lewis & Short

Parsing inflected forms may not always work as expected. If the following does not give the correct word, try Latin Words or Perseus.

mĕrē̆trix, īcis (gen. plur. meretricium, Plaut. Cas. 3, 3, 22: meretricum, id. Ep. 2, 2, 29; Ov. A. A. 1, 435), f. [mereo; she who earns moncy; hence], a prostitute, harlot, courtesan: ita sunt hic meretrices omnes elecebrae argentariae, Plaut. Men. 2, 3, 26: meretricem indigne deperit, id. Bacch. 3, 3, 66: proterva meretrix procaxque, Cic Cael. 20, 49: meretrix inter multos se dividit, Sen. Ben. 1, 14, 4: stat meretrix certo cuivis mercabilis aere, Ov. Am. 1, 10, 21: Augusta, i. e. Messalina, Juv. 6, 118: regina, i. e. Cleopatra, Plin. 9, 35, 58, § 119: Manilia, Gell. 4, 14, 3.