[f. LUBBER sb.] intr. To behave as a lubber; to loaf about; to navigate a boat like a lubber. † Also to lubber it. Now chiefly in pres. pple. and in Lubbering ppl. a.
1530. Palsgr., 615/2. I lubber, I playe the lubber, je loricarde. You lubber as well as any knave in this towne.
1611. Cotgr., Loricarder, to luske, lowt, or lubber it; to loyter about like a masterlesse man.
1837. Wheelwright, trans. Aristophanes, Birds, III. iv. By the brown owls I will no longer spare thee, Whom I behold thus slow and lubbering.
1870. Mrs. Harriet Prescott Spofford, A Pilot’s Wife, in Harper’s Mag., XLI. 861/2. He began to grumble about being ashamed to be seen lubbering round so.
1885. Frederick Schwatka, in Century Mag., XXX. 742/1. As the never-ceasing southern wind grew with the sun, we soon found ourselves lubbering over the beautiful lake.
