wapping ken

From wap (“to engage in sexual intercourse”) + ken (“house”).

wapping ken (plural wapping kens)

1. (obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) A brothel.

• See Thesaurus:brothel

• wapping cove (“prostitute's client”), wapping dell (“prostitute”), wapping moll (“prostitute”), wapping mort (“prostitute”)

• John S[tephen] Farmer; W[illiam] E[rnest] Henley, compilers (1904) “wapping ken”, in Slang and Its Analogues Past and Present. […], volume VII, [London: […] Neill and Co.] […], →OCLC, pages 292–293.