[Cf. LUBBER sb. 1 c.] A beneficent goblin supposed to perform some of the laborious work of a household or farm during the night; a ‘Lob-lie-by-the-fire.’ Also transf.
1632. Milton, L’Allegro, 110. Tells how the drudging Goblin swet, To ern his Cream-bowle duly set,… Then lies him down the Lubbar Fend, And stretch’d out all the Chimney’s length, Basks at the fire his hairy strength.
1831. Edin. Rev., LIV. 175. The lubber-fiend has nothing of the sly humour of Robin Goodfellow about him.
1889. Morris, in Mackail, Life (1899), II. 222. Except that the parson is a lubber-fiend, and that the people are as poor as may be, nothing need be better.
