lovery, a ‘louver’. Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. v. 72.
loves. The phrases for all loves, of all loves (or love), upon all love, for love’s sake, are all phrases indicating strong entreaty, like our for my sake, for his sake. ‘Speake of all loves’, Mids. Night’s D. ii. 2. 153. ‘Of all loves’ is a Derb. form of entreaty, see EDD. (s.v. Love, sb.1 3).
low-bell, a hand-bell used in fowling, to make the birds lie close; ‘Take a low-bell which must have a deep and hollow sound’, Gentleman’s Recreation, Fowling, 39 (Nares); ‘As timorous larks amazed are With light and with a low-bell’, St. George for England, st. 5 (written in 1688), in Percy’s Reliques (ed. Bohn, ii. 329). It is probably this kind of bell which Petruchio means when he says to Maria: ‘Peace, gentle low-bell!’, Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, i. 3.
low-men, loaded dice that produced low throws. London Prodigal, i. 1. 218.
lubric, lubrick, incontinent, wanton. Ford, Witch of Edmonton, iii. 2 (Win.); Dryden, Ode to Mrs. Killigrew, 63; B. Jonson, Poetaster, v. 1 (Crispinus). Med. L. lubricus, ‘impudicus, salax’ (Ducange).
lubrican, the ‘leprechaun’; in Irish folk-lore, a pigmy sprite who always carries a purse containing a shilling (NED.); ‘Your Irish lubrican’, Dekker, Honest Wh., 2nd Pt. iii. 1 (Hippolito); Drayton, Agincourt. For full particulars of this tricky little sprite, see Joyce, English as we speak it in Ireland, 284. Irish lupracán (also, lughracán, lugharcán) a ‘leprechaun’ (Dinneen, p. 450). See EDD. (s.v. Leprechaun).
lucern, a lynx. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iii. 3 (Hubert); lucerns (= θῶες), Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xi. 417; id., Bussy D’Ambois, iii (Bussy); luzern, Peele, Device of a Pageant. Cp. early mod. G. lüchsern, pertaining to the lynx, deriv. of luchs, a lynx (NED.).
lug, the ear. B. Jonson, Staple of News, v. 1 (P. Canter); Return from Parnassus (last scene); hence, lugg’d, furnished with ‘lugs’ or flaps, Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. xi. 174. ‘Lug’ is very common in the north country and E. Anglia, see EDD. (s.v. Lug, sb.2 1).
lug, a measure of land. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 10. 11. In prov. use in the Midlands and south-west counties from Warwicksh. to Somerset, see EDD. (s.v. Lug, sb.3 5).
lug, to pull, drag about. Hamlet, iii. 4. 212; 1 Hen. IV, i. 2. 83; ‘Head-lugged bear’, King Lear, iv. 2. 42. In common colloq. use (EDD.).