Landies, subs. (Winchester College).—Gaiters. [From tradespeople—Landy
and Currell—who supplied them.—Notions].
Landlady. To hang the Landlady, verb. phr. (common).—To decamp without
payment; to moonshine; to stand off the tailor.
Landlubber (also Land-leaper and Land-loper), subs. (old).—A vagabond;
one who fled the country for crime or debt: also (nautical) a landsman,
in varying degrees of contempt, for incapacity in general or
uselessness as sailors in particular. Fr. un jus de cancre; un terrien;
or un failli chien de terrien.
1362. Langland, Piers Plowman, B, xv. 207(...). For he ne is noȝte
in lolleres, ne in lande-leperes hermytes.
1592. Newton, Tryall of a Man’s owne Selfe [Nares]. Whether the
governors of the commonwealth have suffered palmesters,
fortune-tellers, stage-players, sawce-boxes, enterluders, puppit
players, loyterers, vagabonds, landleapers, and such like cozening
make-shifts.
1606. Lyte, Dodoene, 348. Wherfore these landleapers, koges etc.
1621. Burton, Anatomy (ed. 1893), i. 367. Let Mariners learn
Astronomy; Merchants’ Factors study Arithmetick ... Landleapers
Geography.
1622. Bacon, Henry VII. [ed. Spedding], vi. 133. Thirdly he had
been from his childhood such a wanderer or (as the King called it)
such a landloper, as it was extreme hard to hunt out his nest and
parents.
1650. Howell, Familiar Letters [Nares]. You are sure where to find
me, wheras I was a landloper as the Dutchman saith, a wanderer, and
subject to incertain removes, and short sojourns in divers places
before.
1671. Shadwell, Fair Quaker of Deal, i. And the landlubber (for he
is no sailor) had the impudence to tell me he would not be etc.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Land-lopers or land-lubbers,
Freshwater Seamen so called by the true Tarrs; also Vagabonds that
Beg and Steal through the Country.
1696. Nomenclator. Erro ... Rodeur, coureur, vagabond. A roge: a
land leaper: a vagabond: a runagate.
1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Land Lopers or Land-Lubbers,
vagabonds lurking about the country, who subsist by pilfering.
17[?]. Ballad, ‘One Fine Morning’ (The Mermaid), Refrain. Three
jolly sailor boys up on the mast, And the land-lubbers down below.
1811. Lex. Bal., s.v.
1884. Graphic, April 5. p. 338, col. 2. The veriest land-lubber
cannot fail to become something of a sailor after reading it.
Land of Nod, subs. phr. (common).—Sleep. To go to the land of nod = to
go to bed; to fall asleep. For synonyms see Balmy.
1818. Scott, Heart of Mid-Lothian, xxx. There’s queer things
chanced since ye hae been in the land of nod.
1828. Hood, Poems, i. 205 [ed. 1846]. To the happy [bed is] a first
class carriage of ease To the land of nod, or where you please.
1892. Hume Nisbet, Bushranger’s Sweetheart, p. 275. Saying which he
led the way back to our hut, where we flung ourselves down on our
blankets, and were soon in the land of nod.
Land of Promises, subs. phr. (University).—See quot.
1823. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Land of Promises the fair
expectation cherished by a steady novice at Oxford.
Land of Steady Habits, subs. phr. (American).—Connecticut.
Land of Sheepishness, subs. phr. (old University).—See quot.
1823. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Land of Sheepishness, schoolboy’s
bondage.
Land-packet, subs. (American).—See quot.
1847. Porter, Quarter Race, 115. Known as the Captain of a
land-packet, in plain terms, the driver of an ox-team.
Land-pirate (or Land-rat), subs. (old).—1. See quot. 1690. For synonyms
see Road-agent.
1598. Shakspeare, Merchant of Venice, i. 3. There be land-rats and
water-rats, land thieves and water thieves.
1609. Dekker, Gul’s Horn-booke [Grosart (1885), ii. 233]. The Dukes
tomb is a sanctuary, and will keep you alive from land-rats. Ibid.
iii. 262. These land-pyrates lodge in ... the out-barnes of
farmers.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Land-pirates, Highwaymen or any
other robbers. [Also New Cant. Dict. (1725) and Grose (1785)].