Limburger. See Cheese.
Lime-basket. To be dry as a lime-basket, verb. phr. (common).—To be
very dry; to spit sixpences (q.v.). Also to have hot coppers (q.v.).
1838. Dickens, Oliver Twist. He wished he might be basted if he
warn’t as dry as a limebasket.
1892. Hume Nisbet, Bushranger’s Sweetheart, 136. ‘That infernal
swanky has left me as dry as a lime kiln,’ cried out my companion.
Lime-juice, subs. (Australian). See quots.
1886. E. Wakefield, in Nineteenth Century, August, 173. In these
Colonies [Australia], where pretty nearly every one has made
several sea voyages, that subject is strictly tabooed in all
rational society. To dilate upon it is to betray a ‘new chum’—what
they call in Australia a lime juice.
1887. All the Year Round, 30 July, 66. A young man newly arrived in
the Colonies from the old country is styled a new Chum or a
lime-juice.
Limejuicer, subs. (American nautical).—A British ship or sailor. [In
allusion to the lime-juice served out as an anti-scorbutic].
1881. International Rev., xi. 525. You limejuicers have found that
Richmond is taken.
1884. Pall Mall Gazette, 26 Aug. They would not go on a limejuicer,
they said, for anything.
Limetwig, subs. (old).—1. A snare; a trick. Hence (2) any means of
swindling. Also as adj.
1592. Nashe, Pierce Penilesse [Grosart (1885), ii. 24]. Thus walks
he vp and downe ... and ... busies himselfe in setting siluer lime
twigs to entangle young gentlemen.
1592. Greene, Black Books Messenger [Grosart (1881–6), xi. 7]. The
cards to be called ... the lime twigs.
1606. Return from Parnassus [Dodsley, Old Plays (1874), ix. 125].
Let us run through all the lewd forms of lime-twig, purloining
villanies.
1670. Ray, Proverbs [Bohn (1893), 160]. His fingers are limetwigs,
spoken of a thievish person.
Limlifter, subs. (old).—A land-lubber (q.v.).
1598. Florio, A Worlde of Wordes, Levantino, a lifter, a shifter, a
limlifter, a pilferer, etc. Ibid. Cefalú, a scornefull nickname, as
we say a limlifter.
Limping-Jesus, subs. (common).—A lameter; a dot-and-carry-one (q.v.).
Lindabrides, subs. (old).—A harlot. For synonyms see Barrack-hack and
Tart.
1663. Killigrew, Parson’s Wedding, iv. 1. Such a woman is my wife,
and no lindabrides.
Line, subs. (colloquial).—A calling; a profession; a lay (q.v.).
1655. Fuller, Church Hist., II. ix. 23. If I chance to make an
excursion into the matters of the Commonwealth, it is not out of
curiosity, or busy-bodinesse, to be medling in other men’s lines.
1803. Kenney, Raising the Wind, i. 1. Waiter.... The fellow lives
by spunging—gets into people’s houses by his songs and his
bon-mots. At some of the squires’ tables he’s as constant a guest
as the parson, or the apothecary. Sam. Come, that’s an odd line to
go into, however.
1836. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, 41. The man in the shop, perhaps is
in the baked ‘jemmy’ line, or the firewood and hearth-stone line,
or any other line which requires a floating capital of
eighteen-pence or thereabouts.
1888. Rolf Boldrewood, Robbery Under Arms, xxiv. Our first try on
in the coach line was with the Goulburn mail.
1891. N. Gould, Double Event, 177. It’s out of my line.
1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, 52. Halpine Club bizness is oko, and
not in my line.