sb. and a. Sc. and north. dial. Also 5 lymmare, 6 lymare, -er, lymmar, 6–7 limmar, lymber, lymmer. [Of obscure origin; connection with LIMB sb. is possible.]
A. sb.
† 1. A rogue, scoundrel. Obs.
1456. Sir G. Haye, Law of Armys (S.T.S.), 233/24. Ane unworthy lymmare, that settis nocht for honour bot for pillery.
c. 1470. Henryson, Mor. Fab., V. (Parl. Beasts), xli. [To the fox] ‘Byde,’ quod the lioun; ‘limmer, let ws see Gif it be suthe the sillie ȝow hes said.’
1536. Bellenden, Cron. Scot. (1821), I. p. lxiv. He causit hir to be schamfully defowlit with rebaldis and limmaris of his cuntre.
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot., IX. 219. Adam Scot special bordirer and limmer, commounlie calit king of traytouris.
1603. Jas. VI., Lett. to Eliz. (Camden), 147. The repreasing of fugitiues and lymmeries [sic].
1607. Sc. Acts Jas. VI. (1816), IV. 379/2. That Insolent and wicked race and name of the glengregour and notorious lymberis and malefactouris.
1637. B. Jonson, Sad Sheph., II. i. Fowle Limmer! drittie Louwne!
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, iv. There have been a proper set of limmers about to scale your windows, father Simon.
2. Applied to a woman. a. A light woman; a strumpet. b. In weaker sense: A jade, hussy, minx.
1566. Durham Depos. (Surtees), 83. In causa diffamacionis, viz. that his wyf was a lymer.
1728. Ramsay, Last Sp. Miser, viii. I wore nae frizzl’d limmer’s hair.
1786. Burns, Twa Dogs, 182. Except for breakin o’ their timmer Or speakin lightly o’ their limmer.
1814. Scott, Wav., lxiii. Kate and Matty, the limmers, gaed aft wi’ twa o’ Hawley’s dragoons, and I hae twa new queans instead o’ them.
1857. Borrow, Lavengro, lxxxv. (1900), 460. Leave my husband in the hands of you and that limmer, who has never been true to us.
1897. Crockett, Lads’ Love, xiii. 141. ‘Oh—the limmer—how dared she,’ cried my mother, on fire instantly at the hint of an insult or rejection to her eldest son.
B. adj. Knavish, scoundrelly.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, xxvii. 9. With mony lymmar loun.
1562. A. Scott, Poems (S.T.S.), i. 53. For lymmer lawdis and litle lassis lo.
1637. B. Jonson, Sad Sheph., II. i. Hence with ’hem, limmer lowne, Thy vermin, and thy selfe, thy selfe art one.
a. 1785. Rookhope Ryde, iv. in Child, Ballads, III. 439. Limmer thieves drives them away.
Hence † Limmerful a., knavish; † Limmery, knavery.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, xvi. 152. Thy lymmerfull luke wald fle thame.
1567. Gude & Godlie Ball. (S.T.S.), 206. The lymmerie lang hes lestit.
