Lobsneaking, subs. (common).—Till-robbing. Fr. un coup de radin.
Lob’s-pound, subs. (old).—1. A prison; a pound; the stocks: generic for
any place of confinement.
1603. Dekker, Batchelor’s Banquet [Grosart (1886), i. 156]. He ran
wilfully ... into the perill of Lob’s Pound.
1663. Butler, Hudibras, i. 3, 909. Crowdero whom, in irons bound,
Thou basely threwst into Lob’s pound.
1671. Crowne, Juliana, i. 1. Between ’um both he’s got into Lobb’s
pound. [Note (Maidment, 1870)]. Jocularly, a prison or place of
confinement. The phrase is still used and applied to the prison
made for a child between the feet of a grown-up person.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Lobcock, In Lob’s Pound, Laid
by the Heels, or clap’d up in Jail.
1694. Plautus, made English [Nares]. But in what a fine pickle
shou’d I be, if Mr. constable and his watch shou’d pick m’ up and
in wi’ me to Lobs-pound? Out o’ which damn’d kitchin, to morrow
must I be dish’d up for the whipping post; and not ha’ the benefit
o’ the layety to plead i’ m’ own defence.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1819. Moore, Tom Crib, p. 18. The cull broke away, as he would from
Lob’s pound.