lambs-wooll, Add sugar, and nutmegs, and ginger.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Lamb's Wool, roasted apples and ale.
1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.
1731. C. Coffey, The Devil To Pay, i. Here's sixpence for you; get ale and apples, stretch and puff thyself up with lamb's wool, rejoice and revel by thyself.
1766. Goldsmith, Vicar of Wakefield, xi. Our honest neighbour's goose and dumplings were fine, and the lamb's-*wool . . . was excellent.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1811. Lex. Bal., s.v.
1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, viii. The ale, or, to speak technically, the lamb's wool, was fitted for drinking.
1883. Notes & Queries, 6, S. viii. p. 482. The wassail-bowl (as Horsfield states) was compounded of ale, sugar, nutmeg, and roasted apples, the latter called lamb's-wool. The wassail-bowl is placed on a small round table, and each person present is furnished with a silver spoon to stir.
Lame-dog. To help a lame dog
over a stile, verb. phr. (common).—To
give a hand; to help;
to bunk up (q.v.). Fr. sauver
la mise à quelqu'un.
1605. Marston, Insatiate Countess, ii. 2. Here's a stile so high as a man cannot help a dog over it.
1670. Ray, Proverbs [Bohn (1893), 168]. Help the lame dog over the stile.
Lame duck, subs. phr. (common).—1.
A defaulter on 'Change:
who has to 'waddle out of the
Alley.' Cf. Bear, Bull, etc.
1766. Lord March in Jesse's Selwyn, ii. 47 (1882). As I am very deeply engaged [in racing bets], I shall perhaps be obliged to make use of your money, that in case of the worst I may not be a lame duck.
1768. Foote, Devil upon Two Sticks, Act i. A mere bull and bear booby; the patron of lame ducks, brokers, and fraudulent bankrupts.
1771. Garrick, Prologue to The Maid of Bath. The gaming fools are doves, the knaves are rooks, Change-alley bankrupts waddle out lame ducks.
1771. Walpole, Letters, iii. 337. I may be lame, but I shall never be a duck, nor deal in the garbage of the Alley.
1774. Colman, Man of Business, iv. 1. in Wks. (1777), ii. 179. If Mr. Beverly does not pay his differences within these four-and-twenty hours, the world cannot hinder his being a lame duck.
1787. Whitehall Evening News [quoted in Francis on Stock Exchange]. There were no less than 25 lame ducks who waddled out of the alley.
1846. Marryat, Peter Simple, III. xxv. 458. He was obliged to waddle: if I didn't know much about bulls and bears, I know very well what a lame duck is to my cost.
1847. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, xiii. 'Unless I see Amelia's ten thousand down you don't marry her. I'll have no lame duck's daughter in my family.'
1860. Peacock, Gryll Grange, xviii. In Stock Exchange slang, Bulls are speculators for a rise, Bears for a fall. A lame duck is a man who cannot pay his differences, and is said to waddle off.
1865. Harpers' Mag., April, p. 616. All, or nearly all, have been lame ducks at some time or other.
1890. Standard, 5 Aug., p. 2, col. 2. We learn that it is actionable to call a stockbroker a lame duck, because on the Exchange 'the word has acquired a particular meaning.'
1891. Pall Mall Gaz., 19 Jan., p. 3, col. 1. We have had applications from a good many lame ducks.
2. (Australian).—A scapegrace.
1895. Pall Mall Gaz. 15 Aug. p. 3, col. 1. Andrew appears to have been the lame duck of the family, and constantly wagged it from school to go fishing in the lagoons or wallaby-hunting in the mountains with the natives.
Lame-hand, subs. (old coaching).—An
indifferent driver; a spoon
(q.v.).
