the contrary—but plenty of chatter and larking when the taskmaster was out of sight.
Adj. (common).—See Larkish.
Larkish (Larky or Larking), subs.
(common).—Frolicsome: also
rowdy.
1855. Thackeray, The Rose and the Ring, p. 19. . . . He was neither more nor less than a knocker!. . . and some larking young men tried to wrench him off, and put him to the most excruciating agony with a turn-screw.
1863. H. Kingsley, Austin Elliot, iv. Austin, expressing himself in that low, slangy way which the young men of the present day seem so conscious to adopt, said that my Lords were 'uncommonly larky.'
1886. Macdonald, What's Mine's Thine. The girls felt larky . . . they tripped gayly along.
1891. Licensed Victuallers Gazette, 3 April. A larky youngster who loved his wine and women.
1892. Hume Nisbet, Bushranger's Sweetheart, 247. The landlady was a free-and-easy, buxom, and larky woman, who made us all feel at home in the place.
Larky Subaltern's train. See
Cold meat train.
Larrence. See Lazy Laurence.
Larrey, adj. (American thieves').—Artful.—Matsell
(1859).
Larrikin, subs. (Australian).—A
rough; cf. arab, cabbage-tree
mob, hoodlum, etc. [For probable
derivation see quot. 1884;
and for further details, Notes and
Queries, 7, S. vii. 344].
1872. The Age (Melbourne), 15 July. The accused was at the head of a gang of larrikins, who on the previous night paid a visit to Hill's Hotel, Clarendon-street.
1884. Sala, 'Echoes of the Week' in Illus. London News, 4 April. 'It was in a Sydney newspaper that I read about larrikins, but the term would appear to have spread throughout Australia. 'H. de S.' tells me that larrikin was originally Melbourne slang, applied to rowdy youngsters, who, in the early days of the gold fever, gave much trouble to the police. 'An Australian Born' spells the word larakin. . . . Finally, Archibald Forbes tells me: 'A larrikin is a cross between the street Arab and the hoodlum, with a dash of the rough thrown in to improve the mixture. It was thus the term had its origin. A Sydney policeman of the Irish persuasion brought up a rowdy youngster before the local beak. Asked to describe the conduct of the misdemeanant, he said, 'Av if it plase yer honnor, the blaggard wor a larrakin' (larking) all over the place.' The expression was taken hold of and applied.'
1888. Bulletin, 24 Nov. Sergeant Jem Dalton, whose rich brogue originated the term larrikin passed out of Melbourne history last week. Dalton was a born policeman, and after his friends had persuaded him to send in his resignation he turned gently over on his sick bed and died forthwith. He had nothing else to live for.
1892. Pall Mall Gaz., 29 Feb., p. 2, col. 2. That is to say, the disturbance was caused not by the meeting but by the police and larrikins.
1892. Hume Nisbet, Bushranger's Sweetheart, 30. He was a larikin of the larikins, this tiny Stringy Bark, who haunted my thoughts, waking and sleeping.
Adj. (Australian).—Rowdy.
1883. Saturday Review, 10 Nov., p. 614. 'In Melbourne the larrikin element is becoming a danger and a nuisance to decent people.'
Larrikinism, subs. (Australian).—See
quot.
1884. Sala, Echoes of the Week, in Illus. Lond. News, 4 April. 'From the Australian Club, Cambridge, yet another correspondent writes: 'Larrikinism is a purposeless, destructive rowdyism, which finds expression, from my own experience, in knocking off the heads of statues in a mason's yard, and knocking out the eyes of Chinamen with a shanghai (anglicè, catapult).'
Larrup, subs. (colloquial).—To
flog. Fr. coller du rototo.
