Lecher, verb. (venery).—To copulate. For synonyms see Greens and Ride.
1594. Nashe, Unf. Traveller [Grosart (1883–4), v. 29]. He must be
familiar with all, and trust none, drink, carouse, and lecher with
him.
1611. Cotgrave, Dictionarie, passim.
Led-captain, subs. (old).—A toady; a sponge (q.v.); a pimp.
1672. Wycherley, Love in a Wood, i. 1. Wks. (1713), 349. For every
wit has his culley, as every squire his led captain.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, Bk. xi. ch. ix. Two led captains, who
had before rode with his lordship, and who ... were ready at any
time to have performed the office of a footman, or indeed would
have condescended lower, for the honour of his lordship’s company,
and for the convenience of his table.
1816. Scott, Antiquary, ch. xxxix. Petrie ... recommends, upon his
own experience, as tutor in a family of distinction, this attitude
to all led-captains, tutors, dependents and bottle-holders of every
description.
Led-friend, subs. (old).—A parasite.
1710. Steele, Tatler, No. 208. There is hardly a rich man in the
world who has not such a led-friend.
Leeds, subs. (Stock Exchange).—Lincolnshire and Yorkshire ordinary
stock.
Leek, subs. (common).—See quot.
1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. & Lon. Poor, vol. ii. p. 425. The
leeks are men who have not been brought up to the trade of chimney
sweeping, but have adopted it as a speculation, and are so called
from their entering green, or inexperienced into the business.
Leekshire, subs. (common).—Wales.
Leer, subs. (Old Cant).—See quot.
1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 178. Leer is cant for a
newspaper.
Leery, adj. (old).—‘On one’s guard.’—Grose (1823).
Left. Over the left (or left shoulder), adv. phr. (common).—Used in
negation of a statement, and sometimes accompanied by pointing the
thumb over the left shoulder: in Florio ‘in my other hose’. It.
zóccoli. The expression occurs also in le Parnasse Satyrique (1611).
Cf. Left-handed.
1682. Preface to Julian the Apostate (London, printed for Langley
Curtis). What benefit a Popish successor can reap from lives and
fortunes spent in defence of the Protestant religion he may put in
his eye; and what the Protestant religion gets by lives and
fortunes spent in the service of a Popish successor will be over
the left shoulder.
1705. Record of Country Court held in Hartford (U.S.A.), 4 Sept.
The said Waters, as he departed from the table, said, ‘God bless
you over the left shoulder.’ The court ordered a record thereof to
be made forthwith. A true copie.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa Harlowe, 1. 242. You will have an
account to keep too; but an account of what will go over the left
shoulder; only of what he squanders, what he borrows, and what he
owes and never will pay.
1836. Dickens, Pickwick. Each gentleman pointed with his right
thumb over his left shoulder. This action imperfectly described in
words by the very feeble term of over the left ... its expression
is one of light and playful sarcasm.
1841. Punch, i. 37, col. 2. I am thine, and thine only! Thine!—over
the left.
1843. W. T. Moncrieff, The Scamps of London, i. 1. I think she will
come. Ned. Yes, over the left—ha, ha, ha!
1870. H. D. Traill, Saturday Songs, ‘On the Watch,’ p. 22. Eh,
waddyer say? Don’t go? Ho yes! my right honnerble friend, It’s go
and go over the left ... it’s go with a hook at the end.
To get (or be) left, verb. phr. (common).—1. To fail; and (2) to be
placed in a difficulty.
1892. Gunter, Miss Dividends, ch. iv. Making the agreement for the
return or the books on arrival at Ogden, much to the delight of the
news agent, who remarks oracularly, ‘Buck Powers is never quite
left.’
1894. George Moore, Esther Waters, xii. I would not go out with him
or speak to him any more; and while our quarrel was going on Miss
Peggy went after him, and that’s how I got left.
To be left in the basket. See Basketted.
Left-forepart, subs. (common).— A wife. For synonyms see Dutch.
Left-handed, adj. (old).—Sinister; untoward; evil. Ger. link.
1620. Jonson, Silent Woman, iii. 2. It shows you are a man ... that
would not be put off with left-handed cries.
Left-handed wife, subs. phr. (common).—A concubine. For synonyms see
Tart. Cf. Fr. mariage de la main gauche.
1663. Killigrew, The Parson’s Wedding [Dodsley, i. 1]. Do you not
know he’s married according to the rogue’s liturgy? a left-handed
bridegroom.
1823. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, 3rd ed. s.v. Left-handed wife. A
concubine: an allusion to an ancient German custom, according to
which when a man married his concubine, or a woman greatly his
inferior, he gave her his left hand.
Left-hander, subs. (pugilistic).—A blow delivered with the left hand.
1861. Macmillan’s Mag., Feb., p. 273. He let fly a terrific
left-hander at the doctor.
Leg, subs. (common).—1. A swindling gamester.
1836. Dickens, Pickwick, xlii. 365. ‘He was a horse-chaunter: he’s
a leg now.’
1840. Thackeray, Character Sketches (Capt. Rook and Mr. Pigeon). As
for Tom, he is a regular leg now—leading the life already
described. When I met him last it was at Baden, where he was on a
professional tour, with a carriage, a courier, a valet, a
confederate, and a case of pistols.
1843. W. T. Moncrieff, The Scamps of London, i. 1. He’s your
brother, Mr. Frank; but there isn’t a bigger leg on the whole
pavement.
1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab., i. 501. Now and then a regular leg,
when he’s travelling to Chester, York, or Doncaster, to the races,
may draw other passengers into play, and make a trifle, or not a
trifle, by it; or he will play with other legs; but it’s generally
for amusement, I’ve reason to believe.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v. Leg, a gambler.
1866. London Miscellany, 5 May, p. 201. The two who were not of
their race were of the genus leg.
1882. Thormanby, Famous Racing Men, p. 75. He [John Gully] worked
on gradually as a layer of odds—a ‘bettor round,’ or leg, as he was
called in those days. [c. 1820.]
1884. Hawley Smart, From Post to Finish, p. 172. The world regards
me as a compound of leg and money-lender.