La! a euphuistic rendering of LORD! common amongst females and very. precise persons; imagined by many to be a corruption of LOOK! but this is a mistake. Sometimes pronounced LAW, or LAWKS. Lac. one hundred thousand.—_Anglo-Indian._ Laced. strengthened with ardent spirits. Tea or coffee in which brandy is poured is said to be LACED. Lacing. a beating. From the phrase, “I’ll lace your jacket.”—_L’Estrange._ Perhaps to give a beating with a lace or lash. Perhaps, also, a figurative phrase for ornamenting the article in question with stripes. Ladder. “can’t see a hole in a LADDER,” said of any one who is intoxicated. It was once said that a man was never properly drunk until he could not lie down without holding, could not see a hole through a LADDER, or went to the pump to light his pipe. Ladies’ mile. that part of Hyde Park where the feminine beauty, rank, and fashion most do congregate during the airing hours of the London season. Lag. a returned transport, or ticket-of-leave convict. Lag. to void urine.—_Ancient Cant._ In modern slang to transport, as regards bearing witness, and not in reference to the action of judge or jury. Lagged. imprisoned, apprehended, or transported for a crime. From the Old Norse, LAGDA, “laid,”—laid by the leg. Lagger. a sailor. Also, one who gives evidence; an informer. Lagging gage. a chamber-pot.—_Ancient Cant._ Lambasting. a beating. Perhaps LUMB-BASTING, from the lumbar-regions. Lamb’s wool. spiced ale, of which the butler at Brasenose every Shrove Tuesday supplies as much as is required at Hall, with a copy of verses on the subject, generally written by a Brasenose man. One of these poems began:— Lame duck. a stockjobber who speculates beyond his capital, and cannot pay his losses. Upon retiring from the Exchange he is said to “waddle out of the Alley.” Lamming. a beating.—_Old English_, LAM; used by Beaumont and Fletcher. Not as Sir Walter Scott supposed, from one Dr. Lamb, but from the _Old Norse_, LAM, the hand; also, _Gaelic_.
Based on the Slang Dictionary by John Camden Hotten, published by CHATTO & WINDUS, 1913
