|
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_.
|
