1888. Rolf Boldrewood, Robbery Under Arms, ix. Jim’s horse was far
and away the fastest, and he let out to head the mare off from a
creek that was just in front and at the end of the plain.
To let out a reef, verb. phr. (common).—To loosen one’s clothes after a
meal. Fr. lâcher un cran.
She lies backwards and lets out her fore-rooms, phr. (old).—Said of a
whore.—Ray (1767).
To let rip. See Rip.
To let slide. See Slide.
To let up, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To stop. Also (as subs.) let up
(q.v.).
1888. San Francisco Weekly Examiner, 22 March. When every rabbit is
killed, the coyotes sit down on their haunches to a very
comfortable banquet, and never let up until they have taken aboard
so much rabbit-meat that they can hardly stir.
1892. A. K. Green, Cynthia Wakeham’s Money, 141. ‘We have talked
well into the night,’ he remarked; ‘supposing we let up now, and
continue our conversation to-morrow.’
To let the finger ride the thumb too often, verb. phr. (American).—To
get drunk. For synonyms see Drinks and Screwed.
[For other combination see Disinfect—Flicker—In—Marks—Monkey—Play
—Pockets—Slide—Stimulate—Tucks—Up, etc.]
Letchwater, subs. (venery).—The sexual secretion, male and female:
specifically the concomitant of desire.
Let-down, subs. (colloquial).—A decline in circumstances; a come-down.
1866. London Miscellany, 3 Mar., p. 57. Bug-hunting (robbing
drunken men) was about the best game out, and he added, ‘I don’t
think that’s no little let-down for a cove as has been tip-topper
in his time, and smelt the insides of all the coops in the three
kingdoms.’
Lets. No lets, subs. phr. (schoolboys’).—No hindrances.
Letter, subs. (venery).—An abbreviation of French letter (q.v.).
Letter-in-the-post-office. See Flag.
To go and post a letter, verb. phr. (venery).—To copulate. For synonyms
see Greens and Ride.
To go on the letter Q, verb. phr. (old).—See quot.
1823. De Vaux, Memoirs, p. 185, s.v. Letter Q, the mace or billiard
slum, is sometimes called going on the Q, or the letter Q, alluding
to an instrument used in playing billiards.
Lettered, adj. (old).—Branded; burnt in the hand.
Letter-racket, subs. (vagrants’).—See quot.
1823. Grose, Vulg. Tongue (3rd ed.), s.v. Letter Racket, men or
women of genteel address, going about to respectable houses with a
letter or statement, detailing some case of extreme distress, as
shipwreck, sufferings by fire, etc. by which many benevolent, but
credulous, persons are induced to relieve the fictitious wants of
the impostors.
Letty, subs. (common).—A bed; a lodging. For synonyms see Kip. Also
verbally = to lodge.
1875. J. Frost, Circus Life, p. 279. Letty is used both as a noun
and as verb signifying ‘lodging’ and ‘to lodge’.
1893. Emerson, Signor Lippo, xiv. ‘Blower, how about letty?’ ‘Kip
for you two, eh? I’ll just go and see the under-sheriff.’
Let-up, subs. (common).—1. A pause; a breach.
1888. Troy Daily Times.... It rained for three days, almost without
a let up, after we reached our destination. Ibid. The stable hymn,
as the boys called it, was sung in some companies where there was a
little let-up on discipline.
1888. Spirit of the Times. There will be a let up of a few days,
maybe a week, between the close of the Winter Meeting and the
opening of the Spring Meeting.
2. (Stock Exchange).—A sudden disappearance of artificial causes of
depression.
Levant, verb. (common).—To abscond. To do (or throw or run) a levant
(gaming) = to stake and skip (q.v.). Fr. faire voile en Levant; It.
andare in Levante. See quots. 1714 and 1823.
1714. Lucas, Gamesters, iii. He hath ventur’d to come the levant
over gentlemen; that is, to play without any money at all in his
pocket.
1729. Vanbrugh and Cibber, Provoked Husband, i. Crowd to the Hazard
table, throw a familiar levant upon some sharp lurching man of
quality, and if he demands his money, turn it off with a loud
laugh.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, Bk. viii. ch. 12. Never mind that, man!
E’en run a levant.
1788. G. A. Stevens, Adv. of a Speculist, i. 96. This [cheating
described] at Hazard-table is called levanting.
1823. Grose, Vulg. Tongue (3rd ed.). Levanting, or running a
levant, an expedient practised by broken gamesters to retrieve
themselves, and signifies to bet money at a race, cock-match, etc.,
without a shilling in their pocket to answer the event. The
punishment ... is curious: the offender is placed in a large basket
..., hoisted up to the ceiling ... and ... then kept suspended ...
exposed to derision, during the pleasure of the company.
1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, i. 244. When he found she’d
levanted, the Count of Alsace, At first turned remarkably red in
the face.
1880. A. Trollope, The Duke’s Children, ch. xlix. Was it not clear
that a conspiracy might have been made without his knowledge;—and
clear also that the real conspirators had levanted?
1883. Referee, 25 March, p. 3, col. 2. The late manager of the
‘Vic.’, it appears, levanted with over £100 of the money belonging
to the committee.
1887. Daily Telegraph, 12 March. Whom he would compel to lodge a
considerable sum as caution money, so that in the event of one of
the body levanting, there would be wherewithal to pay his
creditors.
1892. Globe, 2 April, p. 2, col. 1. If he could only lay his hands
on levanting Brown!
Levant me! intj. (common).—Used as an imprecation: cf. Blow me.
1760. Foote, The Minor, i. Levant me, but he got enough last night
to purchase a principality amongst his countrymen.
Levanter, subs. (common).—A defaulting debtor; a welsher.
1598. Florio, Worlde of Wordes. Levante.... A limlifter, a shifter,
an uptaker, a pilfrer.
1781. G. Parker, View of Society, ii. 168. Levanters. These are of
the order and number of Black-Legs.
1823. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, p. 5. Here, among the pinks in
Rotten-row, the lady-birds in the Saloon, the angelics at Almack’s,
the-top-of-the-tree heroes, the legs and levanters at Tattersal’s,
nay, even among the millers at the Fives, it would be taken for
nothing less than the index of a complete flat.
1826. Hood, Whims and Oddities, 1st S. (Backing the Favourite). But
she wedded in a canter, And made me a levanter, In foreign lands to
sigh for the Favourite!
Level. To work (or act) on a broad level, verb. phr. (American).—To be
stable and trustworthy. Broad-level price = the lowest fixed price.
Level-best, adj. phr. (colloquial).—The best one can do; the utmost of
one’s power.
1879. E. E. Hale, His Level Best [Century]. I said, ‘I’ll do my
level best,’ Doctor.
1882. McCabe, New York, p. 217. I was listening to the aged cove,
and trying to do my level best in replying to him.
1889. Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday, 1 June. When that core of my
heart does her level best to send the toe of her satin boot through
the ceiling, then I somehow think the word Daisy is misapplied,
however well it may look on a playbill.
1890. Sporting Life, 8 Nov. Both tried their level best.
1892. R. L. Stevenson and L. Osbourne, The Wrecker, p. 154. But
you’ll do your level best, Loudon; I depend on you for that. You
must be all fire and grit and dash from the word ‘go.’
1892. Hume Nisbet, Bushranger’s Sweetheart, p. 106. I have done my
level best to cater for them.
Level-coil. To play level-coil, verb. phr. (old).—To copulate. For
synonyms see Greens and Ride.
1662. Wilson, The Cheats, iv. 2. Mop. She is the Constable’s wife,
whom, to be short, the Alderman cuckolds. Jol. Hah! Are you sure of
it? Mop. I made her confess that the Alderman and one Bilboe play
level de coile with her.
Level-headed, adj. (American).—Well-balanced; steady; judicious.
1870. Golden City (San Francisco: quoted in Orchestra), 12 Aug.
Miss Markham is rather quiet off the stage, agreeable in
conversation, and doesn’t care much what the censorious world says
about her—and herein her head is level!
1870. Orchestra, 12 Aug. To tell a woman her head is level is
apparently a compliment in America, though to call a man a ‘square
head’ is to insult him in France.
1879. Bret Harte, Gabriel Conroy, xxxix. A strong suspicion among
men whose heads are level.
1895. N.Y. Press, in Pall Mall Gazette, Sept. 13, p. 7. This people
had taken him for a gallant, persistent, even-tempered level-headed
gentleman.
Levite, subs. (old).—1. A parson. For synonyms see Devil-dodger.
1663. Killigrew, Parson’s Wedding, ii. 4. You uncivil fellow, you
come hither to tell my lady of her faults, as if her own levite
could not discern ’em.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.
1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., ch. iii. A young Levite—such was the
phrase then in use—might be had for his board, a small garret, and
ten pounds a year.
2. (old).—A fashionable dress for women (c. 1780). [Horace Walpole: ‘a
man’s bed-gown bound round with a belt’].
Levy, subs. (common).—1. A shilling.