to disable (as with a blow); to kill; to cook one's goose (q.v.).
2. (colloquial).—To intend; to purpose; to propose.
To lay over, verb. phr. (colloquial).—1. To excel.
1870. Bret Harte, Luck of Roaring Camp. A street that would lay over any street in Red Dog.
A good lay, subs. phr. (tailors').—An economical method of cutting; anything beneficial.
Laycock. See Miss Laycock.
Layer, subs. (racing).—A bookmaker;
a betting man.
Lay-out, subs. (American).—A company;
an outfit (q.v.); a spread
(q.v.).
1869. McClure, Rocky Mountains, 219. A most expensive lay-out.
Layover. See Lareover.
Laystall (Leystall, or Layston),
subs. (old).—See quots.
1590. Spenser, Faerie Queene, 1. v. 53. Scarce could he groping find in that fowle way, For many corses like a great laystall lay, Of murdred men, which therein strowed lay.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Leystall, a Dunghill.
1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Laystall a dunghill on which the soil brought from necessary houses is emptied. Idem, 3rd ed., s.v. Laystall a dunghill about London, on which the soil brought from necessary houses is emptied; or in more technical terms where the old gold, collected at weddings by the Tom turd-man is stored.
Lay-up, subs. (common).—A drink;
a go (q.v.).
1891. Newman, Scamping Tricks, 84. I would have given just then some one else's gold-mines for a strong lay-up of something neat.
Lazy. Lazy as Ludlam's (or David
Laurence's) Dog, phr. (old).—Excessively
indolent; see
quots. Also 'Lazy as Joe the
marine who laid down his musket
to sneeze.'
1670. Ray, Proverbs, s.v.
1678. Cotton, Scarronides, Note. 'Tis a proverb, Ludlam's dog leaned his head against a wall when he went to bark.
1811. Lex. Bal., s.v. Lazy. As lazy as Ludlam's dog who leaned against the wall to bark. As lazy as the tinker, who laid down his budget to f—t.
Lazy-bones, subs. (common).—1.
A loafer; also Lazy-boots. Fr.
une loche.
1593. Harvey, Pierces Superer. [Grosart (1885), ii. 283]. Was legierdemane a sloweworme, or viuacitie a lasie-bones.
1596. Nashe, Have With You etc. [Grosart (1885), iii. 62]. Tell me was euer . . . Viuacitie a lazy-bones?
1626. Breton, Pasquil's Madecapp [Grosart (1869), i. e, 12, 2. 31.]. Go tell the labourers, that the lazie bones That will not worke, must seeke the beggars gains.
1860. Gaskell, Sylvia's Lovers, ch. xxxv. Like a lazy-boots as she is.
1877. Scribner's Monthly, p. 526. Sharp at ten o'clock, snow-shoes are strapped on again, and Indian file homeward they go, some novices and lazybones walking home sans shoes by the road.
Lazy-Lawrence (or Larrence).—An
incarnation of laziness. See
quot.
1655. Prideaux, Readings in History [N. and Q. 7, S. xi. 212]. St. Lawrence suffered martyrdom about the middle of the third century, 250 to 260 A.C. A traditional tale has been handed down from age to age that at his execution he
