2. (theatrical).—See quot. 1781.
1781. G. Parker, View of Society, 1. 43. It being one of the usual enquiries made by Managers of the candidates for country engagements, 'How many lengths can you study from night to night?' A length is forty two lines.
1838. Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby, ch. xxiii. I've a part of twelve lengths here which I must be up in by to-morrow night.
1871. Edinburgh Review, 'Lord Brougham's Recollections of a Long Life.' Keen said that Iago was three lengths longer than Othello.
1885. Household Words, 22 Aug., p. 328. All they knew or cared to know was that they had to get into their heads certain lengths of a certain drama to be produced that very night.
To get the length of one's foot, verb. phr. (common).—To fascinate; to understand how to manage a person.
Lenten-faced, adj. (old).—Starved-
or sad-looking.
1621. Burton, Anatomy (ed. 1893), iii. 220. Howsoever they put on lenten faces, and whatsoever they pretend.
Lenten-fare, subs. (old).—See
quot.
1823. Grose, Vulg. Tongue (3rd ed.), s.v. Lenten fare, spare diet.
Ler-ac-am, subs. (back slang).—Mackarel.
Lericompoop (Leripup, Leripoop,
or Luripup), subs. (old).—Originally
an academical scarf or hood.
Hence, (1) knowledge or acuteness;
(2) a man or woman of
parts; (3) a swindle, jest, or trick;
and (4) a cheat, buffon, or jester.
Thence, to play one's liripups
= (1) to undergo examination
for a degree; and (2) to play the
fool (from the contempt into
which scholastic subtleties had
in the end to fall). Also as
verb = to deceive, to cheat.
1584. Sapho and Phaon, i. 3. Thow maist be skilled in thy logic, but not in thy lerypoope.
1593. Harvey, Pierces Superer. [Grosart (1885), ii. 78]. Nash is learned, and knoweth his leripup. Ibid. 278. Be no niggard of thy sweet accents . . . but reach the antike muses their right leripup.
1594. J. Lyly, Mother Bombie, i. 3. There's a girl that knows her lerripoop.
1594. Nashe, Unf. Traveller [Grosart (1885), v. 159]. Heere was a wily wench had her liripoop without book.
1603-37. Breton, Packet of Letters [Grosart (1870), ii. h. 34, 10, line 4]. I see you haue little to doe that haue so much leisure to play your luripups.
1605. London Prodigal, iv. 1. Well cha' a bin zarved many a sluttish trick, but such a lerripoop . . . was never yzarved.
1611. Cotgrave, Dict., s.v. Qui sçait bien son roulet, one that knows his liripoope.
1621. Beaumont & Fletcher, Pilgrim, ii. 1. Keep me this young lirry-*poop within doors.
1719. Durfey, Pills to Purge, i. 186. And all the day long, This, this was her song, Was ever poor Maiden so lericompoop'd.
Lesbian, subs. (venery).—A fellatrix
of women. [From the legend
of Sappho and the women of
Lesbos].
Lesson. See Simple Arithmetic.
Let. Let alone, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Much
less; not mentioning.
1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, . . . I have not had, this livelong day, one drop to cheer my heart, Nor brown to buy a bit of bread with—let alone a tart.
