L
laced mutton, a strumpet. Two Gent. i. 1. 102; B. Jonson, Neptune’s Triumph (Boy). See NED. See [mutton].
lachesse, negligence. Caxton, Hist. of Troye, leaf 74, back, 18. ME. lachesse (Chaucer, C. T. I. 720), OF. lachesse, laschesse, deriv. of lasche, slack. L. laxus, lax.
lack, to want. What do y’ lack? what will you buy; the constant cry of the shopkeepers. B. Jonson, Magnetic Lady, Induction, l. 1; Barth. Fair, ii. 1 (Leatherhead).
lackey, to accompany, like a lackey or foot-boy. Massinger, Virgin Martyr, i. 1 (Harpax). Used fig. ‘A thousand liveried angels lackey her’, Milton, Comus, 455. See Dict.
lad, led; pt. t. of lead. Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 4; iv. 8. 2. A Lanc. form, see EDD. (s.v. Lead, 1 (1)).
ladron, a thief, robber. Shirley, The Brothers, v. 3 (Pedro). Span. ladron, a thief; L. latro, a robber.
lady, the calcareous substance in the stomach of a lobster, serving for the trituration of its food; fancifully supposed to resemble the outline of a seated female figure; ‘What lady? the lady in the lobster?’ Shirley, Witty Fair One, iii. 4 (Aimwell).
Lady of the Lake, a personage in Arthurian romance; hence, a fairy, nymph; ‘This bevie of Ladies bright . . . all Ladyes of the lake behight’, Spenser, Shep. Kal., April, 120. Humorously, a woman of light behaviour. Massinger, New Way to Pay, ii. 1 (Marrall).
lag, slow, tardy, habitually late. Richard III, ii. 1. 91; a laggard, Dryden, To Mr. Lee, 43; lag-end, latter part, fag-end, 1 Hen. IV, v. 1. 24. See EDD. (s.v. Lag, adj., 1).