Lamb v.

[f. LAMB sb.]

  1.  trans. (passive only.) To bear or bring forth; to ‘drop’ (a lamb).

1641.  Best, Farm. Bks. (Surtees), 5. It … inableth the lambe to seeke after a livinge soe soone as it is lambed.

1725.  Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Lamb, If he be like to dye when first Lambed, it is usual to open his Mouth and blow therein.

1793.  Hollym Inclos. Act, 13. A modus of one shilling a score of all lambs lambed and living at Midsummer.

c. 1817.  Hogg, Tales & Sk., IV. 199. The … shepherd … found her with a new-yeaned lamb on the very gair of the Crawmel Craig, where she was lambed herself.

1829.  Glover’s Hist. Derby, I. 214. Not one of these [rams] was lambed before Feb. 6, 1828.

  2.  intr. To bring forth a lamb; to yean.

1611.  Cotgr., Agneler, to lambe.

1641.  Best, Farm. Bks. (Surtees), 5. An ewe putt into a goode pasture three weekes afore shee lambe, is as goode as to lett her goe in a goode pasture three weekes after.

1701.  J. Brand, Zetland, (1703), 75. As for the Sheep…, they Lamb not so soon as with us.

1846.  J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4), II. p. xxii. Each ewe … lambing at two, three, and four years old.

  3.  Of a shepherd: To tend (ewes) at lambing-time. Also, to lamb down.

1850.  Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., XI. I. 76. The flocks are usually lambed down about the latter end of March. Ibid. (1851), XII. II. 574. Every shepherd considers himself an adept at lambing his ewes.

Mod. Advt., Wanted, a Cowman, one used to lamb-down a few Ewes preferred.

  4.  Lamb down. Austral. [? a transferred use of sense 3.] trans. a. To part with, pay down (money), esp. recklessly. Also absol.

1890.  Melbourne Argus, 7 June, 4/2. The paying off of drovers, the selling off of horses, the ‘lambing down’ of cheques. Ibid., 9 Aug., 4/5. The old woman, of course, thought that we were on gold, and would lamb down at the finish in her shanty.

  b.  To induce (a person) to get rid of his money; to ‘clean out.’ Also absol.

1873.  M. Clarke, Holiday Peak, etc. 21. Trowbridge’s did not ‘lamb down’ so well as the Three Posts.

1890.  Melbourne Argus, 16 Aug., 4/7. One used to serve drinks in the bar, the other kept the billiard-table. Between them they lambed down more shearers and drovers than all the rest on the river.

  Hence Lambed ppl. a., Lambing (down) vbl. sb.

1611.  Cotgr., Agnelé, lambed.

1844.  Stephens, Bk. Farm, II. 599. Of the lambing of ewes. Ibid., 601. Think also what sort of care is bestowed on a newly lambed flock.

1850.  Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., XI. I. 76. I have kept 500 ewes in lamb this way … and had them in very high condition … on their lambing down.

1867.  Gainsborough News, 23 March. 200 lambed and in-lamb ewes and gimmers.

1873.  J. B. Stephens, Black Gin, etc. 51.

1880.  G. Walch, Victoria in 1880, 130. The operation—combining equal parts of hocussing, overcharging, and direct robbery … and facetiously christened by bush landlords ‘lambing down.’