lancepesade, a non-commissioned officer of the lowest grade, a lance-corporal. Massinger, Maid of Honour, iii. 1; lance-presade, Cleaveland, Poems (Nares); lanceprisado, Fletcher, Thierry, ii. 2 (Martell). The term was orig. applied to a trooper who having broken his lance (lancia spezzata) on the enemy was entertained as a volunteer assistant to a captain of foot, receiving his pay as a trooper until he could remount himself (Grose). See Estienne, Précellence (ed. 1896, p. 353) for account of Lance-spessade. See Stanford, and Nares.
lanch, launch, to cut, lance, pierce. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 2. 37; Heywood, Eng. Traveller, ii. 1 (Clown). OF. (Picard) lancher (F. lancier). In W. Somerset they will ask for ‘a lanch to lanch the cow’, see EDD. (s.v. Lance, sb.1 1). See Dict. (s.v. Launch).
†land-damn, to rate severely (?). Winter’s Tale, ii. 1. 143. The word in Shakespeare is of doubtful authenticity. The alleged survival of the word in dialects, with the sense ‘to abuse with rancour’, appears to be imperfectly authenticated. For ingenious conjectures see Nares.
landlouper, a runner about the land, a vagabond. Bacon, Henry VII, p. 105; spelt land-loper; Howell, Forraine Travell, p. 67 (Arber). Du. landt-looper, ‘a vagabond, or a rogue that runnes up and downe the countrie’ (Hexham).
langdebiefe, wild bugloss. Tusser, Husbandry, § 39. 16; langdebeef, Lyte, tr. of Dodoens, bk. v, c. 15. OF. lange de beof, ‘ox tunge’, ‘lingua bovis’, ‘buglossa’ (Alphita, 24).
langer, to loiter about; ‘Wandryng and langerynge’, Morte Arthur, leaf 185. 20; bk. ix, c. 20. See Dict. (s.v. Linger).
langued, lit. tongued; in heraldry, represented with a tongue of a specified tincture or colour. Butler, Hud. i. 2. 259. Cp. F. langué, ‘langued, a term of Blazon’ (Cotgr.).
lannard, a ‘lanner’, a species of falcon. Middleton, Span. Gipsy, iv. 3 (Fernando); ‘Lanarde, a hauke, lanier’, Palsgrave. In prov. use in Cornwall for the peregrine falcon (EDD.). See Dict. (s.v. Lanner).
†lansket, a shutter, a panel of a door, or a lattice; ‘I peep’d in At a loose lansket’, Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, ii. 6 (Jaques). Only found here (NED.).
lantedo, lanteero; ‘Your lantedoes nor your lanteeroes’, Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, iv. 3 (Blurt). See [adelantado].