1607. The Puritan, ii. 1. A fine gallant Knight of the least feather.
Latch, verb, (old).—To let in.—New
Cant. Dict. (1725); Grose
(1785) and Lex. Bal. (1811).
Latch-drawer, subs. (old).—A
thief who stole into houses by
drawing the latch.
1362. Langland, Piers Plowman, p. 143. Thank lyers and latche-drawers and tolleres knocke, Let hem abyde tyl the bord be drawe.
Latch-pan, subs. (common).—The
under-lip: to hang one's latch-pan
= to pout; to be sulky.
Late-play, subs. (Westminster
School).—A half-holiday or holiday
beginning at noon.
Lath-and-plaster, subs. (rhyming).—A master.
Lather, subs. (venery).—The sexual
secretion, male and female.
Cf. letch-water. Hence, lather-maker
= the female pudendum.
For synonyms see Cream.
Verb. (common).—To beat; to thrash. Also leather (q.v.).
1849. Punch's Almanack. To dream of soap betokens a combat in which you may expect to get lathered.
Lathy, adj. (colloquial).—Thin.
1748. West, Abuse of Travelling, The which he tossed to and fro amain, And eft his lathy falchion brandished.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Lathy . . . a lathy wench, a girl almost as slender as a lath.
1811. Lex. Bal., s.v.
1858. B. Taylor, Northern Travel, 204. A lathy young man . . . was struggling . . . to right himself.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v.
Latitat, subs. (old).—An attorney.—Grose
(1785); Lex. Bal. (1811);
Matsell (1859). [From an obsolete
form of writ].
1771. Foote, Maid of Bath, i. I will send for Luke latitat and Codicil, and make a handsome bequest to the hospital.
Latter-end, subs. (common).—The
breech. For synonyms see Monocular
Eyeglass.
Lattice. See Red lattice.
Latty. See Letty.
Laugh. To laugh on the wrong
(or other) side of one's mouth
(or face), subs. phr. (colloquial).—To
cry.
1811. Lex. Bal., s.v. Laugh.
1823. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Laugh.
1826. Buckstone, Death Fetch, i. 4. Snapsch. (Aside.) And have a pretty family of them about my ears the first time I'm left alone in the dark, who would soon make me laugh on the other side of my mouth, I fancy.
1837. Carlyle, Diamond Necklace, iii. By and bye thou wilt laugh on the wrong side of thy face.
Launch, subs. (old).—A lying-in;
bust-up; explosion.—Grose
(1823).
Verb. (old: public school).—See quot.
1865. G. J. Berkeley, My Life, etc., i. 129. I had [at Sandhurst about 1815] to undergo the usual torments of being launched, that is having my bed reversed while I was asleep; of being thrown on the floor on my face, with the mattress on my back and all my friends or foes dancing on my prostrate body.
Laundress, subs. (old).—1. A bed
maker in chambers; and hence (2)
a smock servant (q.v.).
