Also 6, 8 lu, 8 liew, lue. [abbreviated f. LANTERLOO.]
1. A round card-game played by a varying number of players. The cards in three-card loo have the same value as in whist; in five-card loo the Jack of Clubs (‘Pam’) is the highest card. A player who fails to take a trick or breaks any of the laws of the game is ‘looed,’ i.e., required to pay a certain sum, or ‘loo,’ to the pool. Limited, unlimited loo: see quots. 1830, 1883. b. The fact of being looed. c. The sum deposited in the pool by a player who is looed.
1675. Wycherley, Country Wife, Epil. They … May kiss the Cards at Picquet, Hombre,—Lu, And so he thought to kiss the Lady too.
1680. Cotton, Compl. Gamester (ed. 2), xx. Lanterloo 102. If three, four, five or six play, they may lay out the threes, fours, fives, sixes and sevens to the intent they may not be quickly loo’d; but if they would have the loos come fast about then play with the whole pack. Ibid., 104. If any be loo’d he must lay down so much for his loo as his five Cards amount to.
1710. Brit. Apollo, III. No. 5. 2/2. A. gives B. 3s. 6d. to Play for him at Liew…. B. had lost all but 5d. and there was a Liew down of 2s. 6d.
1712–4. Pope, Rape Lock, III. 62. Ev’n mighty Pam, that Kings and Queens o’erthrew And mow’d down armies in the fights of Lu.
1731. Swift, To Dr. Helsham, 16. Yet, ladies are seldom at ombre or lue sick.
1777. Colman, Epil. Sch. Scand., in Prose on Sev. Occas. (1787), III. 215. And as Backgammon mortify my soul That pants for Lu, or flutters at a Vole.
1796. Jane Austen, Pride & Prej. (1885), I. viii. 30. On entering the drawing room, she found the party at loo.
1823. Southey, in Life (1849), I. 89. In the evening my aunt and I generally played at five-card loo with him.
1830. R. Hardie, Hoyle made familiar, 70. At Limited Loo those who play and do not get a trick pay into the pool only the price of the deal, while at Unlimited Loo they pay the whole amount that happens to be in the pool at the time.
a. 1845. Barham, Ingol. Leg., Ld. Thoulouse, xii. I should like to see you Try to sauter le coup With this chap at short whist, or unlimited loo.
1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxf., i. (1889), 2. They … played billiards until the gates closed, and then were ready for … unlimited loo … in their own rooms.
1883. H. Jones, in Encycl. Brit., XV. 1/1. If there is a loo in the last deal of a round, the game continues till there is a hand without a loo. Ibid., 1/2. At unlimited loo each player looed has to put in the amount there was in the pool. But it is generally agreed to limit the loo, so that it shall not exceed a certain fixed sum. Thus, at eighteen-penny loo, the loo is generally limited to half a guinea.
1885. Farjeon, Sacred Nugget, xv. The game being loo, six shillings ‘tit-up,’ limited to two guineas. Ibid. ‘Let it be club law.’… So club law it was, and the loos became more frequent.
2. A party playing at loo.
1760. H. Walpole, Lett. to G. Montagu, 7 Jan. There were two tables at loo, two at whist, and a quadrille. I was commanded to the duke’s loo.
Mod. (Ireland) Are you coming to my loo?
† 3. Party, set. Phr. For the good of the loo: ‘for the benefit of the company or community’ (Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, 1785). Obs.
1764. H. Walpole, Lett. to Hertford, 27 May. Lady Falkener’s daughter is to be married to … Mr. Crewe, a Maccarone and of our loo.
1774. Association Delegates Colonies, 12. They shall be … sold Auction-wise, for the Good of the Loo.
4. attrib. and Comb., as loo club; loo-table, a table for playing loo upon; now the trade designation of a particular form of round table, originally devised for this purpose.
1789. Charlotte Smith, Ethelinde (1814), II. 130. Dinner was no sooner over, than the loo-table was introduced into the drawing-room.
1830. R. Hardie, Hoyle made familiar, 72. The following [laws] are those observed at the Loo Clubs.
1862. Trollope, Orley F., I. vi. 46. A round loo-table.
