1606. Wily Beguiled [Dodsley, Old Plays (1874), ix. 241]. Your lubberly legs would not carry your lobcock body.
1645. Milton, L'Allegro. Then lies him down, the lubbar fiend.
1673. Dryden, Amboyna, Epilogue, 14. Venetians do not more uncouthly ride, Than did their lubber state mankind bestride.
1706. Farquhar, Recruiting Officer, v. 4. Me for a soldier! send your own lazy, lubberly sons at home.
1759. Goldsmith, The Bee, No. 6, p. 395 (Globe ed.). Those modest lubberly boys who seem to want spirit generally go through their business with more ease to themselves and more satisfaction to their instructors.
1856. Miss Yonge, Daisy Chain, xxxvii. 'Poor George had been so spoiled by three aunts, and was so big, and so old that my mother did not know what to make of him.' 'A great lubberly boy,' Ethel said, rather repenting the next moment.
Lubberland, subs. (old).—The
Paradise of indolence.
1767. Ray, Proverbs [Bohn (1893), 56]. You'd do well in lubberland, where they have half a crown a day for sleeping.
Lubber's-hole, subs. (nautical).—An
opening in the maintop, preferred
before the shrouds by raw
hands and timid climbers.
b.1794. Wolcot ['P. Pindar'], Peter's Prophecy, in Wks., vol. i. p. 446. And yet, Sir Joseph, Fame reports, you stole To Fortune's topmast through the lubberhole.
1822. D. Jerrold, Black Ey'd Susan, ii. 2. Go up the futtock-shrouds like a man—don't creep through lubber's-hole.
1833. Marryat, Peter Simple, ch. vii. I was afraid to venture, and then he proposed that I should go through lubber's hole, which he said had been made for people like me. I agreed to attempt it, as it appeared more easy, and at last arrived, quite out of breath, and very happy to find myself in the main-top.
1836. Michael Scott, Cruise of the Midge (ed. 18..), p. 363. Why, captain, I have paid great attention since we embarked, and really I have become a very capital sailor, sir. Do you know I have been twice through the lubber's hole?
Lubricate, verb. (common).—To
drink.
Luck. Down on one's luck, adj.
phr. (common).—Unlucky; in
trouble; 'hard up'.
1846-8. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, lxiv. They say that when Mrs. C. was particularly down on her luck, she gave concerts and lessons in music here and there.
1885. Eng. Illustrated Mag., p. 638. A fellow who's down on his luck now.
1891. Fun, 25 Mar. Now, the real, genuine, unadulterated nob—be he ever so down on his luck—always tends his nails to the last.
1892. St. James's Gaz., 29 Oct., 5, 1. Sir Harry Golightly was down on his luck. He confided his woes to Mrs. FitzHarris.
Greasy-luck, subs. (whalers').—A full cargo of oil.
Fisherman's luck, subs. phr. (common).—Wet, cold, hungry, and no fish.
Shitten luck, subs. phr. (old).—Good luck.
1670. Ray, Proverbs [Bohn (1893), 131], s.v.
Lucky, subs. (thieves').—Plunder.
1852. Judson, Mysteries of New York, iv. Ve might as vel count up the week's earnins and divide the lucky.
Adj. (old colloquial).—Handy.
1703. Centlivre, Love's Contrivance, i. 'You used to be a lucky rogue upon a pinch.' 'Ay, master, and I have not forgot it yet.'
To cut (or make) one's lucky, verb. phr. (common).—To decamp. For synonyms see Amputate and Skedaddle.
1834. M. C. Dowling, Othello Travestie, i. 2. You'd better cut your lucky.
