Drunk as a lord (prince, or emperor), phr. (common).—Very drunk.
1653. Middleton, Sp. Gipsy, iv. 1. Water thy wine—Sam. [sings] And
drink like a lord.
1678. Cotton, Virgil Travestie, in Works (1725), Bk. iv. p. 72.
Trojans round beseige her Boards, Merry as Greeks, and drunk as
lords.
1719. Durfey, Pills to Purge, iv. 17. For our Squire, we fear, is
as drunk as a lord.
1731. C. Coffey, The Devil to Pay, Scene 2. I’m always sharp set
towards punch; and am now come with a firm resolution, though but a
poor cobbler, to be as richly drunk as a lord; I am a true English
heart, and look upon drunkenness as the best part of the liberty of
the subject.
1734. Fielding, Intriguing Chambermaid, ii. 6. You dare disturb
gentlemen, who are getting as drunk as lords.
1853. Thackeray, Barry Lyndon, xviii. 252. She ran screaming
through the galleries, and I, as tipsy as a lord, came staggering
after.
The Lord knows what, phr. (colloquial).—‘Heaps’; plenty more; all sorts
of things.
1691–2. Gentlemen’s Journal, Mar., p. 3. Here’s novels, and
new-town adventures ... and the Lord knows what not.
Lord-Baldwin. See Queen Anne.
Lord-Harry. See Old Harry.
Lord-John-Russell, subs. phr. (rhyming).—A bustle; a bird-cage (q.v.).
Lord-Lovel, subs. phr. (rhyming).—A shovel.
Lord-Mansfield’s-Teeth, subs. phr. (old).—The spikes round the wall of
the Kings’ Bench.—Grose (1796).
Lord-Mayor, subs. phr. (thieves’).—A large crowbar; a jemmy (q.v.).
Lord-Mayor’s-Coal, subs. phr. (old).—See quot.
1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, 2nd Series (ed. 1851), 144. Had
the coal been a Lord Mayor’s coal—viz., a slate.
Lord-Mayor’s-fool, subs. phr. (old).—See quot.
1859. H. Kingsley, Geoffry Hamlyn, xxxii. Burnside was in the habit
of saying that he was like the Lord Mayor’s fool—fond of everything
that was good.
Lord-of-the-Manor, subs. phr. (rhyming).—A tanner (q.v.). For synonyms
see Bender.
Lose.—See Combination; Hair; Mess; Shirt.
Loser, subs. (billiards).—A stroke in which the player pockets his own
ball, after striking either his opponent’s or the red.
1888. Sporting Life, 10 Dec. At last brought a run of 87 to a close
with a break-down at a white loser.
Lost-cause, subs. (colloquial American).—Secessionism.
Lot, subs. (colloquial).—A person, male or female: mostly in sarcasm or
contempt; as, ‘a bad lot’, ‘a nice lot’, etc.
1846–8. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, 1. vii. ‘You’ll get no good out of
’er,’ continued John, pointing with his thumb towards Miss Sharp:
‘a bad lot, I tell you, a bad lot.’
1878. Jas. Payn, By Proxy, ix. ‘So that’s your young friend, is
it!’ said he, rattling the loose silver in his capacious pocket
with one hand, and laying the other lightly upon Nelly’s head.
‘She’s a very nice little lot.’
1888. Pall Mall Gaz., 20 Nov., p. 2, col. 2. He is a thorough bad
lot.
1889. C. Haddon Chambers, ‘Ne’er-do-well,’ in Australian Wilds.
‘I’m afraid he’s a very bad lot,’ I said. ‘I wonder that you have
kept him on so long.’
Loteby (or Ludby), subs. (old).—A concubine. See Ligby.
1360. Chaucer, Rom. of the Rose, 1. 6339. And with me folwith my
loteby To done me solas and company.
c. 1426. Audeley, Poems, 5. Now ȝif that a man he wed a wyfe, And
hym thynke sche plese hym noȝt, Anon ther rysis care and stryfe; He
wold her selle that he had boȝt, And schenchypus here that he had
soȝt, And takys to him a loteby.
1701. Harl. MSS. (1809–13), fol. 20. For almost hyt is every whore,
A gentyl man hath a wyfe and a hore; And wyves have now comunly
Here husbondys and a ludby.
1701. Harl. MSS. (1809–13), fol. 12. But there the wyfe haunteth
foly Undyr here husbunde a ludby.
Lothario, subs. (colloquial).—A seducer of married women.
1630. Davenant, The Cruel Brother, Dramatis Personæ. Lothario, a
frantic young gallant.
1703. Rowe (& Massinger), Fair Penitent, Dramatis Personæ.
Lothario, a gallant.
1756. The World, No. 202. Proud of the summons to display his
might, The gay lothario dresses for the fight.
1818. Moore, Fudge Family, 87. If some who are lotharios in feeding
should wish Just to flirt with a luncheon.
1849. Lytton, Caxtons, xviii. ch. vi. No woman could have been more
flattered and courted by lotharios and lady-killers.
1876. Times, 2 Nov. Maurice, a most inflammable lothario, catches
fire at her charms.
1882. Cowper, Hope, 28. Lothario cries, ‘What philosophic stuff.’
Lothbury. To go by way of Lothbury, verb. phr. (old).—To be loth. [A
pun: cf. Needham Shore, Peckham, etc.].
d. 1580. Tusser [p. 146, quoted by Nares], Though such for woe, by
lothbury go, For being spide about Cheapside.
Lotion, subs. (common).—Drink.
1876. Hindley, Adventures of a Cheap Jack, 82. Try to make each
other drunk, so that the one who could take the most lotion without
being so, might get the best of it by having the place to himself.
1883. Daily Telegraph, 13 April, p. 2, col. 7. In his evidence he
said that the testator took his lotion (liquor) ‘according to his
troubles.’
1888. J. Runciman, The Chequers, 85. You squat still, now, and git
through that there lotion.
1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, 62. The ’ole thing seemed swell,
with good grubbing and lots o’ prime lotion chucked in.
1892. Anstey, Model Music Hall Songs, 119. What do you all say to
goin’ inside, and shunting a little garbage, and shifting a drop or
so of lotion?
Loud, adj. (common).—1. Showy; raffish (q.v.): applied to dress or
manners. Also as adv.. Cf. howling.
1847. Albert Smith, Nat. Hist. of the Gent, vi. 42. They were all
dressed nearly alike; hats with narrow brims, coats with large
buttons, staring shawls, and trousers of the most prominent
style—very loud patterns, as a friend appropriately called them.
1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, xxx. Rakish young medical students,
gallant, dashing, what is called loudly dressed.
1851. Carlyle, Life of Sterling, 1. ch. 2. In a much louder style
than is freely patronised on this side of the Channel.
1853. E. Bradley [‘Cuthbert Bede’], Verdant Green, ii. p. 7. And as
Mr. Fosbrooke was far too politic a gentleman to irritate the
examiners by appearing in a loud or sporting costume, he had
carried out the idea of clerical character by a quiet, gentlemanly
suit of black.
1864. Eton School Days, xxiii. Butler Burke made his appearance in
a Jersey, which was decidedly loud; and some of the lookers-on
exclaimed, ‘By Jove! that’s a loud shirt playing in Wynne’s.’
1871. Figaro, 4 Jan. At the last moment Mrs. Tripp, terribly
flustered, and also shiny, with a very loud shawl on, suggestive of
an amalgamation of the brightest Scotch plaids, just popped in.
1885. Truth, 26 March, p. 502, col. 2. I saw a good frock of this
kind with stripes of cardinal, navy blue, and amber. That sounds
loud does it not?
1889. Ouida, Moths, xv. Her own daughter ... had loud costumes with
wonderful waistcoats.