1713. The Guardian, No. 71. This town is, of late years, very much infested with lions . . . there are many of these beasts of prey who walk our streets in broad day-light, beating about from coffeehouse to coffeehouse, and seeking whom they may devour. To unriddle this paradox, I must acquaint my rural reader, that we polite men of the town give the name of a lion to any one that is a great man's spy.
2. (colloquial).—An object (animate or inanimate) of interest. To see the lions = to go sight-*seeing.
1590. Greene, Never Too Late [Grosart, viii. 68]. This country Francesco was no other but a meere nouice, and that so newly, that to use the old proverb, he had scarce seene the lions.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Lion . . . to show the lions and tombs, to point out the particular curiosities of any place, an allusion to Westminster Abbey and the Tower where the tombs and lions are shown. . . . It is a standing joke among the city wits to send boys and county-folks on the first of April to the Tower ditch to see the lions washed.
1822. Lamb, Elia (Decay of Beggars). The Mendicants of this great city were so many of her sights, her lions. I can no more spare them than I could the Cries of London.
1837. Dickens, Pickwick, iv. But more than these, there were half a dozen lions from London—authors, real authors, who had written whole books, and printed them afterwards—and here you might see 'em, walking about, like ordinary men, smiling, and talking.
1839. Miss Martineau, 'Literary Lionism,' in London & Westm. Review, April. In one crowded room are three lions,—a new musical composer, an eminent divine who publishes, and a lady poet.
1849. Washington Irving, Goldsmith, xviii. He had suddenly risen to literary fame, and become one of the lions.
1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, viii. Doctor McGuffog, Professor Bodgers, Count Poski, and all the lions present at Mrs. Newcome's réunion that evening, were completely eclipsed by Colonel Newcome.
1864. Glasgow Herald, 23 April. They saw only the danger of losing the lion that they hoped to show about the country in leading-strings.
1888. Daily Telegraph, 6 Jan. The comic lion commenced, but hardly were the first lines out of his mouth when a furious tempest of hisses, cat-calls, and whistling arose.
3. (University).—See quot.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Lion . . . also the name given by the gownsmen of Oxford, to inhabitants or visitors.
4. (old).—See quots.
1825. English Spy, i. 156. I'll thank you for a cut out of the back of that lion tittered a man opposite with all the natural timidity of the hare whom he thus particularised.
1828. Lytton, Pelham, p. 112 [ed. 1864]. 'A lion is a hare, Sir.' 'What!' 'Yes, Sir, it is a hare, but we call it a lion because of the game laws.'
1872. Court Journal, 29 June. It was often impossible to get game for the table, and at dinner it was usual to ask for lion, and lion was entered in the bill of fare.
5. in pl. (military).—The Fourth Foot. [From its ancient badge].
Verb. (American thieves').—See quot.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v. Lion. Be saucy; lion the fellow; make a loud noise; substitute noise for good sense; frighten; bluff.
Cotswold lion, subs. (old).—A sheep. See Cotsold and Lammermoor lion.
1537. Thersites [Dodsley, Old Plays (1874), i. 400]. Now have at the lions on Cots'old!
1600. Sir John Oldcastle, i. 2. You old stale ruffian, you lion of Cotswold.
1659. Harrington, Epigrams, B. iii. Ep. 18. Lo then the mystery from whence the name, Of Cotsold lyone first to England came.
1672. Ray, Proverbs [Bohn (1893), p. 204], s.v.
