ABSTRACT
L. See: going through. la! to! See: oh! la! la! lackey. See: who was your l. lad(s). See: away, the lads; come on, my; harm; now then, me. ladder. See: I’m in the life-boat. ladies, lady. See: all fine l.; don’t tear it; gangway; gentlemen present; Henry’s; horses sweat; like the ladies; little old l.; long nose; make way; officers and their; preparing; that’s no l.; waltz; who’s your l. Lady Agatha. See: pleasure. lady with whom he shares his joys but not his sorrows-a. ‘An Edwardian mot, prim and juste, to mean a man’s mistress as contrasted with his wife’ (L.A., 1976). Lafarge. See: no Tich; pas de L. laid. See: often laid. laid ’em in the aisles. See: I had ’em rolling… laid, re-laid and parlayed. ‘Sexually very active and satiated’: entirely US: since the 1930s. R.C., 1977, adds: ‘There is a pun involved, since a parlay is a series of bets laid on several horse-races, with the winnings (if any) cumulated. Hence a certain implication [triggered by laid] of successive intercourse with several women (more often, several times with one woman). Perhaps even a second pun, on “relay race”, with the baton (!) passed from one runner to another. Cf stewed, screwed…’ lake. See: go jump. lamb. See: mutton. Lammie Todd! I would-if I got half a chance!: tailors’: c. 1860-1940. Prob. from the name of a well-known tailor. lamp. See: dim as a Toc-H; oil; swing that. land. See: how lies; six foot. land-office business. See: they’re doing land. landing. See: if you can walk. landlady. See: it must be the l.; you have a heart. lane. See: it’s a long l. language. See: we speak. larceny. See: full of l. lareovers for meddlers was, late C18-early C19, ‘an answer frequently given to children or young people, as a rebuke for their impertinent curiosity’ (Grose); the earliest recording comes in BE underworld glossary, c. 1668; then dialectal usu. as layers for meddlers, or even, occ., lay horses for meddlers, a piece of folklore that seems to belong esp. to Westmorland, as Mr Allan R.Whittaker informs me. Nevertheless lareovers…has survived in the form lay-overs for meddlers. Lareovers is ‘a contraction of lay-overs, i.e. things laid over, covered up, or protected from meddlers’ (Apperson).
