lobster-box
A barrack, or military station.
English · UK & Ireland 17968
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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.
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.
long one
A hare; a term used by poachers.
long shanks
A long-legged person.
long stomach
A voracious appetite.
long tongued
Loquacious, not able to keep a secret. He is as long-tongued as Granny: Granny was an idiot who could lick her own eye. See GRANNY.
long-ghost
A tall, thin, awkward person. Sometimes called "lamp-post."
long-headed
Far-seeing, clever, calculating.
long-hundred
A Billingsgate expression for 120 fresh herrings, or other small fish, the long-hundred being six score.
long-odds
The odds which denote that the man or animal laid against has, or is supposed to have, little or no chance.
long-shore butcher
A coast-guardsman.—Sea. All people who get their livings by the side of the Thames below bridge are called LONG-SHORE folk.
long-tailed beggar
A cat. The tale that hangs thereby runs thus:—A boy, during his first very short voyage to sea, had become so entirely a seaman, that on his return he had forgotten the name of the cat, and was obliged, pointing to puss, to ask his mother "what she called that ’ere LONG-TAILED BEGGAR?" Accordingly, sailors, when they hear a freshwater tar discoursing too largely on nautical matters, are very apt to say, "But how, mate, about that ’ere LONG-TAILED BEGGAR?"
long-tailed-one
A bank-note or "flimsy" for a large amount.
long-tails
Among shooters, are pheasants; among coursers and dog-fanciers they are greyhounds.
long-winded
A long-winded parson; one who preached long, tedious sermons. A long-winded paymaster; one who takes long credit.
longs
The latrine at Brasenose, so called because built by LADY LONG.—Oxford University.
longs-and-shorts
Cards made for cheating.
loo
For the good of the loo; for the benefit of the company or community.
looby
An awkward, ignorant fellow.
looking as if one could not help it
Looking like a simpleton, or as if one could not say boh! to a goose.
looking-glass
A chamber pot, jordan, or member mug.
looking-glass
A facetious synonym for a pot de chambre. This is very old. The term arose from the fact that in ancient times this utensil was the object of very frequent examination by the medical fraternity. There is an old story of a lady who called at an inn, and called for a LOOKING-GLASS to arrange her hair, and who was presented with a chamber utensil.
loonslate
Thirteen pence halfpenny.
loony
A silly fellow, a natural. Corruption of LOONEY TICK (lunatic). Sometimes corrupted to LOOBY.
loophole
An opening, or means of escape. To find a loophole in an act of parliament; i.e. a method of evading it,
loose-box
A brougham or other vehicle kept for the use of a dame de compagnie. A more vulgar appellation is "mot-cart," the contemptuous sobriquet applied by the envious mob to a one-horse covered carriage.
loot
Swag or plunder; also used as a verb. The word came much into vogue during the latest Chinese campaign.
lop-sided
Uneven, having one side larger or heavier than the other: boys' paper kites are often said to be lop-sided.
lop-sided
Uneven, one side larger than the other. See Jacob Faithful.
lope
This old form of leap is often heard in the streets. To LOPE is also to steal. German, LAUFEN.
lord
A humpbacked man. See MY LORD.
lord-mayor’s-fool
An imaginary personage who likes everything that is good, and plenty of it.
lothario
A "gay" deceiver; generally a heartless, brainless villain.
loud
Flashy, showy, as applied to dress or manner. See BAGS.
lounge
A loitering place, or gossiping shop.
lour
Or LOWR, money; "gammy LOWR," bad money. From the Wallachian Gipsy word, LOWE, coined money. Possibly connected with the French, LOUER, to hire.—Ancient Cant and Gipsy.
louse
A gentleman's companion. He will never louse a grey head of his own; he will never live to be old.
louse bag
A black bag worn to the hair or wig.
louse house
The round house, cage, or any other place
louse ladder
A stitch fallen in a stocking.
louse-trap
A small-tooth comb.—Old Cant. See CATCH-’EM-ALIVE.
lout
A clumsy stupid fellow.
love
At billiards, rackets, and many other games, nothing: five points to none would be "five LOVE,"—a LOVE game being when one player does not score at all. The term is also used at whist, "six LOVE," "four LOVE," when one side has marked up six, four, or any other number, and the other none.
loveage
Tap droppings, a mixture of stale spirits, sweetened and sold to habitual dram-drinkers, principally females. Called also "alls."
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