L l

 

labe     -     to heap on in great quantities 

lace, lacin'    -       to beat, a beating 

lade       -      to bail out 

lady-cailady     -    bird (lit. lady cow, probably because of it's                             spots like a Freesian)

lag last     -       a slow person (lack lustre?) 

laise     -    to search for lice on a person's head 

lam-an'-sally     -     a beating 

lammockin'     -     lanky, tall and clumsy

lamp     -     to beat soundly (Icelandic lama = to bruise) 

lankin'    -    lanky 

Lancashire gloves     -     hands without gloves in cold                                                   weather

Lanky    -      Lancashire (used as an adjective)

land stone    -         a buried erratic stone

lat     -    late, slow, sluggish 

late-wheiles    -     of late, recently 

lawmanees!    -      an exclamation of astonishmenti

lawp       -      to eat clumsily or greedily 

Lawrence    -     the personification of idleness, "Yo'n gotten                           Lawrence on yur back" meaning "You are                               afflicted with idleness" 

laws-a-dees!        -      Alack-a day! "Laws-a-dees! What times                                   be these!" 

lawyers      -      a humourous name for briars or brambles; so                          called from the difficulty people often find in                            extricating themselves from their clutches.

lazy beds    -     potatoes grown in the traditional way ie. in                             long strips with a shallow ditch along each                             side for drainage

lee    -       a grass field newly ploughed 

leean ait    -       to level out, make fit for use.

lee dain     -    (1)to lay down (2)to set to energetically, get to                        work 

lee-o'ers for meddlers       -      a frequent answer to a                                                      meddlesome or impertinent                                                    enquiry. The phrase implies some                                          kind of punishment for the                                                      meddler. 

leight-bowt      -      a thunder bolt, or a bolt of lightening 

licksome       -    pleasant place or situation or person,                                     lissome

lie-by    -      a bed fellow 

lie to     -      to give special attention to an animal 

liftin'      -       a Spring Rite, now obsolete, where men-folk lift                       the women into the air on one day and vice                             versa on the next day. This rite became quite a                       nuisance in the larger towns and was banned. 

liggaty-lag     -      like "last one to .................. is a rotten                                   egg!"

lig, ligger     -     a fib, fibber 

lithermon's load     -      a lazy man's load. A load piled up to                                       save a double journey 

lobscouse     -    potato hash - like Irish stew

lobspound      -      difficulty, trouble "Mind yo dunna get into                               lobspound o'er that job"

lodged       -       growing corn which has been beaten down by                          the wind and rain 

loffeling, lollack , lommock, lommockin'     -    lolling, idling

loggy     -      short and heavy-bodied "Yo bin too loggy to                           run!" 

lommer     -     to clamber, get along with difficulty, carry or                         drag a large burden

lommock     -      a lump, used as a verb meaning to deal out                             in large quantites 

lompun hole     -      the hole or pond where all the farm-yard                                 effluent runs to 

Longnix    -      a heron

loo'd    -    disappointed, nonplussed, left in the lurch

Lord Ralph    -     a currant cake made by a wife when her                                 husband goes away from home. She invites                             her friends round for a gathering. Similarly a                           man will "hoist the besom" above the door                             lintel and invite his friends.

lossy      -      uneconomical 

lozzack      -      to lounge, loll lazily 

lug     -        (1) to pull (2) to carry the harvest home

lumpin'     -       big 

lung meadow, lung pasture     -     the pasture of the road                                                             sides 

lurch     -     to lurk 

lush      -       to drink heavily (Shropshire say loach)

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