Chapter Liverpool to Lockman of L by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

table, the guests were to rush upon the patriot, and secure him. (Sir Walter Scott: Tales of a Grandfather, vii.)

Loaf held in the Hand (A) is the attribute of St. Philip the Apostle, St. Osyth, St. Joanna, Nicholas, St. Godfrey, and of many other saints noted for their charity to the poor.

Loafers Tramps, thieves, and the ne'er-do-well. Idle fellows who get their living by expedients; chevaliers d'industrie. (German, läufer, a runner; Dutch, looper.)

“Until the differentiation of the labourer from the loafer takes place, the unemployed question can never be properly dealt with.”- Nineteenth Century, December, 1893, p. 855.

Loathly Lady A lady so hideous that no one would marry her except Sir Gawain; and immediately after the marriage her ugliness- the effect of enchantment- disappeared, and she became a model of beauty. Love beautifies.

Loaves and Fishes With an eye to the loaves and fishes; for the sake of ... With a view to the material benefits to be derived. The crowd followed Jesus Christ, not for the spiritual doctrines which He taught, but for the loaves and fishes which He distributed amongst them.

“Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye seek Me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.”- John vi. 26.

Lob A till. Hence lob-sneak, one who robs the till; and lob-sneaking, robbing tills. (See next article.)

Lob's Pound A prison, the stocks, or any other place of confinement. (Welsh, llob, a dolt). The Irish call it Pook's or Pouk's fold, and Puck is called by Shakespeare “the lob of spirits,” and by Milton, “the lubber fiend.” Our word lobby is where people are confined till admission is granted them into the audience chamber; it is also applied to that enclosed space near farmyards where cattle were confined.

Lobby The Bill will cross the lobbies. Be sent from the House of Commons to the House of Lords.

Loblolly among seamen, is spoon-victuals, or pap for lobs or dolts. (See Lollypops .)

Loblolly Boy (A.) A surgeon's mate in the navy. Here lob is the Welsh llob, a dolt, and loblolly boy is a dolt not yet out of his spoon-meat or baby-pap.

“Loblolly-boy is a person on board a man-of-war who attends the surgeon and his mates, but knows as much about the business of a seaman as the author of this poem.”- The Patent (1776).

Lobster Sauce Died for want of lobster sauce. Died of mortification at some trifling disappointment. Died from pique, or wounded vanity. At the grand feast given by the great Condé to Louis XIV., at Chantilly, Vatel was told that the lobsters for the turbot sauce had not arrived, whereupon this chef of the kitchen retired to his private room, and, leaning on his sword, ran it through his body, unable to survive such a dire disgrace as serving up turbot without lobster sauce.

Lobsters and Tarpaulings. Soldiers and sailors. Soldiers are now popularly called lobsters, because they are turned red when enlisted into the service. But the term was originally applied to a troop of horse soldiers in the Great Rebellion, clad in armour which covered them as a shell.

“Sir William Waller received from London (in 1643) a fresh regiment of 500 horse, under the command of Sir Arthur Haslerig, which were so prodigiously armed that they were called by the king's party `the regiment of lobsters,' because of their bright iron shells with which they were covered, being perfect cuirassiers, and were the first seen so armed on either side.”- Clarendon: History of the Rebellion, iii. 91.