1785. Grose, Vulgar Tongue, s.v. Lord.
1820-33. Lamb, Essays of Elia. A deformed person is a lord . . . we do not find that that monarch [Richard III] conferred any such lordships as here pretended.
1827. Todd, Johnson's Dicty, s.v. Lord. A ludicrous title given by the vulgar to a hump-backed person; traced, however, to the Greek [Greek: lordos], crooked.
1864. Athenæum, 29 Oct., No. 1931. On the Greek origin of lord, as applied to those who are vulgarly called 'hunch-backs,' Mr. Hotten is silent.
1886. W. Besant, World Went Very Well Then, iii. He was, in appearance, short and bent, with rounded shoulders, and with a hump (which made the boys call him My lord).
2. in pl. (Winchester College).—The first eleven.
3. See Lord of the Manor.
Drunk as a lord (prince, or emperor), phr. (common).—Very drunk.
1653. Middleton, Sp. Gipsy, iv. 1. Water thy wine—Sam.[sings] And drink like a lord.
1678. Cotton, Virgil Travestie, in Works (1725), Bk. iv. p. 72. Trojans round beseige her Boards, Merry as Greeks, and drunk as lords.
1719. Durfey, Pills to Purge, iv. 17. For our Squire, we fear, is as drunk as a lord.
1731. C. Coffey, The Devil to Pay, Scene 2. I'm always sharp set towards punch; and am now come with a firm resolution, though but a poor cobbler, to be as richly drunk as a lord; I am a true English heart, and look upon drunkenness as the best part of the liberty of the subject.
1734. Fielding, Intriguing Chambermaid, ii. 6. You dare disturb gentlemen, who are getting as drunk as lords.
1853. Thackeray, Barry Lyndon, xviii. 252. She ran screaming through the galleries, and I, as tipsy as a lord, came staggering after.
The Lord knows what, phr. (colloquial).—'Heaps'; plenty more; all sorts of things.
1691-2. Gentlemen's Journal, Mar., p. 3. Here's novels, and new-*town adventures . . . and the Lord knows what not.
Lord-Baldwin. See Queen Anne.
Lord-Harry. See Old Harry.
Lord-John-Russell, subs. phr.
(rhyming).—A bustle; a bird-*cage
(q.v.).
Lord-Lovel, subs. phr. (rhyming).—A
shovel.
Lord-Mansfield's-Teeth, subs.
phr. (old).—The spikes round the
wall of the Kings' Bench.—Grose
(1796).
Lord-Mayor, subs. phr. (thieves').—A
large crowbar; a jemmy
(q.v.).
Lord-Mayor's-Coal, subs. phr.
(old).—See quot.
1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, 2nd Series (ed. 1851), 144. Had the coal been a Lord Mayor's coal—viz., a slate.
Lord-Mayor's-fool, subs. phr.
(old).—See quot.
1859. H. Kingsley, Geoffry Hamlyn, xxxii. Burnside was in the habit of saying that he was like the Lord Mayor's fool—fond of everything that was good.
Lord-of-the-Manor, subs. phr.
(rhyming).—A tanner (q.v.).
For synonyms see Bender.
Lose.—See Combination; Hair;
Mess; Shirt.
Loser, subs. (billiards).—A stroke
in which the player pockets his
own ball, after striking either his
opponent's or the red.
