limbo
A prison, from LIMBUS or LIMBUS PATRUM, a mediæval theological term for purgatory. The Catholic Church teaches that LIMBO was that part of hell where holy people who died before the Redemption were kept.
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Where will you be? Anywhere UK & IrelandUnited StatesOnline slangBusiness jargon
Expressions you’ll hear in Britain and Ireland — distinctly British usage first, then widespread staples.
limbs
Duke of limbs; a tall awkward fellow.
line
To get a man into a line, i.e. to divert his attention by a ridiculous or absurd story. To humbug.
line
A hoax, a fool-trap; as, "to get him in a LINE," i.e., to get some sport out of him.
liner
A casual reporter, paid by the line. Diminutive of "penny-a-liner."
lingo
Language. An outlandish lingo; a foreign tongue. The parlezvous lingo; the French language.
lingo
Talk, or language. Slang is termed LINGO amongst the lower orders. Italian, LINGUA.—Lingua Franca.
lint-scraper
A young surgeon. Thackeray, in Lovel the Widower, uses the phrase, and gives, also, the words "Æsculapius," "Pestle-grinder," and "Vaccinator," for the same character.
lion
To tip the lion; to squeeze the nose of the party tipped, flat to his face with the thumb. To shew the lions and tombs; to point out the particular curiosities of any place, to act the ciceroni: an allusion to Westminster Abbey, and the Tower, where the tombs and lions are shewn. A lion is also a name given by the gownsmen of Oxford to an inhabitant or visitor.
lion-hunter
One who hunts up, and has a devout veneration for, small celebrities. Mrs. Leo Hunter, in Pickwick, is a splendid specimen of this unpleasant creature.
lionesses
Ladies visiting an Oxford man, especially at "Commemoration," which is the chief time for receiving feminine visitors at the University.
lionize
To make much of any visitor with small or moderate claims to distinction; to conduct a stranger round the principal objects of attraction in a place; to act as cicerone.
lip
Talk, bounce, impudence; "come, none o’ yer LIP!"
liquor
To liquor one's boots; to drink before a journey: among Roman Catholics, to administer the extreme unction.
liquor
Or LIQUOR UP, to drink drams.—Americanism. In LIQUOR, tipsy, or drunk.
little breeches
A familiar appellation used to a little boy.
little clergyman
A young chimney-sweeper.
little ease
A small dark cell in Guildhall, London, where disorderly apprentices are confined by the city chamberlain: it is called Little Ease from its being so low that a lad cannot stand upright in it.
little snakes-man
A little thief, who is generally passed through a small aperture to open a door and let in the rest of the gang.
little snakesman
A little boy who gets into a house through the sink-hole, and then opens the door for his accomplices: he is so called, from writhing and twisting like a snake, in order to work himself through the narrow passage.
live lumber
A term used by sailors, to signify all landsmen on board their ships.
live-stock
Vermin of the insect kind, especially of that more than usually unpleasant kind found on tramps, &c.
liverpool irishman
Any man born in Liverpool of Irish parents. See IRISH COCKNEY.
liverpudlian
A native of Liverpool.
loaf
To be in bad loaf, to be in a disagreeable situation, or in trouble.
loafer
A lazy vagabond. Generally considered an Americanism. LOPER, or LOAFER, however, was in general use as a cant term in the early part of the last century. LANDLOPER was a vagabond who begged in the attire of a sailor; and the sea-phrase, LAND-LUBBER, was doubtless synonymous.
loaver
Money. See LOUR.—Lingua Franca.
lob
A till in a tradesman's shop. To frisk a lob; to rob a till. See FLASH PANNEY.
lob
A till, or money-drawer.
lob-sneaking
Stealing money from tills; occasionally stealing tills and all.
lobb
The head.—Pugilistic.
lobcock
A large relaxed penis: also a dull inanimate fellow.
lobkin
A house to lie in: also a lodging.
loblolley boy
A nick name for the surgeon's servant on board a man of war, sometimes for the surgeon himself: from the water gruel prescribed to the sick, which is called loblolley.
loblolly
Gruel.—Old: used by Markham as a sea-term for grit gruel, or hasty pudding.
loblolly boy
A derisive term for a surgeon’s mate in the navy.
lobonian society
A society which met at Lob Hall, at the King and Queen, Norton Falgate, by order of Lob the great.
lobs!
Schoolboys’ signal on the master’s approach. Also, an assistant watcher, an under gamekeeper.
lobscouse
A dish much eaten at sea, composed of salt beef, biscuit and onions, well peppered, and stewed together.
lobscouse
A dish made of potatoes, meat, and biscuits, boiled together.
lobster
A nick name for a soldier, from the colour of his clothes. To boil one's lobster, for a churchman to become a soldier: lobsters, which are of a bluish black, being made red by boiling. I will not make a lobster kettle of my ****, a reply frequently made by the nymphs of the Point at Portsmouth, when requested by a soldier to grant him a favour.
lobster
A soldier. A policeman, from the colour of his coat, is styled an unboiled, or raw LOBSTER.
lobster-box
A barrack, or military station.
lock
A scheme, a mode. I must fight that lock; I must try that scheme.
lock hospital
An hospital for venereal patients.
lock up house
A spunging house; a public house kept by sheriff's officers, to which they convey the persons they have arrested, where they practise every species of imposition and extortion with impunity. Also houses kept by agents or crimps, who enlist, or rather trepan, men to serve the East India or African company as soldiers.
lockeram-jawed
Thin-faced, or lanthorn-jawed. See LANTHORN JAWED.
loggerhead
A blockhead, or stupid fellow. We three loggerheads be: a sentence frequently written under two heads, and the reader by repeating it makes himself the third. A loggerhead is also a double-headed, or bar shot of iron. To go to loggerheads; to fall to fighting.
loggerheads
"to come to LOGGERHEADS," to come to blows.
logie
Theatrical jewellery, made mostly of tin.
loll
Mother's loll; a favourite child, the mother's darling,
loll
To lie about lazily. "He would LOLL upon the handle of the door," said of an incorrigibly lazy fellow.
loll tongue
He has been playing a game at loll tongue; he has been salivated.
lollipops
Sweet lozenges purchased by children.
lolly
The head. See LOBB.—Pugilistic.
lombard fever
Sick of the lombard fever; i.e. of the idles.
long
Great. A long price; a great price.
long firm
A gang of swindlers who obtain goods by false pretences. They generally advertise or answer advertisements. The word LONG is supposed to be from a playful allusion made by one of the firm to the length of their credit.
long gallery
Throwing, or rather trundling, the dice the whole length of the board.
long meg
A jeering name for a very tall woman: from one famous in story, called Long Meg of Westminster.