1888. Sporting Life, 10 Dec. At last brought a run of 87 to a close with a break-down at a white loser.
Lost-cause, subs. (colloquial American).—Secessionism.
Lot, subs. (colloquial).—A person,
male or female: mostly in sarcasm
or contempt; as, 'a bad
lot', 'a nice lot', etc.
1846-8. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, 1. vii. 'You'll get no good out of 'er,' continued John, pointing with his thumb towards Miss Sharp: 'a bad lot, I tell you, a bad lot.'
1878. Jas. Payn, By Proxy, ix. 'So that's your young friend, is it!' said he, rattling the loose silver in his capacious pocket with one hand, and laying the other lightly upon Nelly's head. 'She's a very nice little lot.'
1888. Pall Mall Gaz., 20 Nov., p. 2, col. 2. He is a thorough bad lot.
1889. C. Haddon Chambers, 'Ne'er-do-well,' in Australian Wilds. 'I'm afraid he's a very bad lot,' I said. 'I wonder that you have kept him on so long.'
Loteby (or Ludby), subs. (old).—A
concubine. See Ligby.
1360. Chaucer, Rom. of the Rose, 1. 6339. And with me folwith my loteby To done me solas and company.
c.1426. Audeley, Poems, 5. Now ȝif that a man he wed a wyfe, And hym thynke sche plese hym noȝt, Anon ther rysis care and stryfe; He wold her selle that he had boȝt, And schenchypus here that he had soȝt, And takys to him a loteby.
1701. Harl. MSS. (1809-13), fol. 20. For almost hyt is every whore, A gentyl man hath a wyfe and a hore; And wyves have now comunly Here husbondys and a ludby.
1701. Harl. MSS. (1809-13), fol. 12. But there the wyfe haunteth foly Undyr here husbunde a ludby.
Lothario, subs. (colloquial).—A
seducer of married women.
1630. Davenant, The Cruel Brother, Dramatis Personæ. Lothario, a frantic young gallant.
1703. Rowe (& Massinger), Fair Penitent, Dramatis Personæ. Lothario, a gallant.
1756. The World, No. 202. Proud of the summons to display his might, The gay lothario dresses for the fight.
1818. Moore, Fudge Family, 87. If some who are lotharios in feeding should wish Just to flirt with a luncheon.
1849. Lytton, Caxtons, xviii. ch. vi. No woman could have been more flattered and courted by lotharios and lady-killers.
1876. Times, 2 Nov. Maurice, a most inflammable lothario, catches fire at her charms.
1882. Cowper, Hope, 28. Lothario cries, 'What philosophic stuff.'
Lothbury. To go by way of
Lothbury, verb. phr. (old).—To
be loth. [A pun: cf. Needham
Shore, Peckham, etc.].
d.1580. Tusser [p. 146, quoted by Nares], Though such for woe, by lothbury go, For being spide about Cheapside.
Lotion, subs. (common).—Drink.
1876. Hindley, Adventures of a Cheap Jack, 82. Try to make each other drunk, so that the one who could take the most lotion without being so, might get the best of it by having the place to himself.
1883. Daily Telegraph, 13 April, p. 2, col. 7. In his evidence he said that the testator took his lotion (liquor) 'according to his troubles.'
1888. J. Runciman, The Chequers, 85. You squat still, now, and git through that there lotion.
1892. Milliken, 'Arry Ballads, 62. The 'ole thing seemed swell, with good grubbing and lots o' prime lotion chucked in.
1892. Anstey, Model Music Hall Songs, 119. What do you all say to goin' inside, and shunting a little garbage, and shifting a drop or so of lotion?
Loud, adj. (common).—1. Showy;
raffish (q.v.): applied to dress or
manners. Also as adv. Cf. howling.
