lift
To steal, pick pockets; "there’s a clock been LIFTED," said when a watch has been stolen. The word is as old as the Border forays, and is used by Shakspeare. SHOPLIFTER is a recognised term. Old Gothic, LLIFAN, to steal; Lower Rhenish, LÖFTEN.
English · UK & Ireland 17968
All languages English Tiếng Việt
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.
lig
A lie, a falsehood.—Lancashire. In old ballads the word "lie" is often spelt "LIG." In old Saxon, LIG is to lie, but to lie as in a bed.
light
Credit, trust; "to get a LIGHT at a house" is to get credit. When a man’s credit is stopped, his LIGHT is said to be put out. LIGHT also means life. "I’ll put your LIGHT out" is a murderous threat.
light bob
A soldier of the light infantry company.
light house
A man with a red fiery nose.
light troops
Lice; the light troops are in full march; the lice are crawling about.
light-fingered
Thievish, apt to pilfer.
light-heeled
Swift in running. A light-heeled wench; one who is apt, by the flying up of her heels, to fall flat on her back, a willing wench.
lightning
Gin. A flash of lightning; a glass of gin.
lightning
Gin; "flash o’ LIGHTNING," a glass of gin.
lights
A worthless piece of meat; applied metaphorically to a fool, a soft or stupid person.
likeness
A phrase used by thieves when the officers or turnkeys are examining their countenance. As the traps are taking our likeness; the officers are attentively observing us.
lil
A book, generally a pocket-book.—Gipsy.
liliputian
A diminutive man or woman: from Gulliver's Travels, written by Dean Swift, where an imaginary kingdom of dwarfs of that name is described.
lily benjamin
A great white coat. See BENJAMIN.
lily shallow
(WHIP SLANG) A white driving hat.
limb
A troublesome or precocious child.
limbo
A prison, confinement.
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.
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.
Advertisement
Ad space — ads help keep Idiomer free. Premium will remove them.