Lag

subs. (old).—1.  Sentence of transportation or penal servitude; transportation.

  1821.  D. HAGGART, Life, p. 18. Under sentence of LAG for spunk.

  2.  (thieves’).—1.  A returned transport; (2) a convict; and (3) a ticket-of-leave man. For synonyms, see WRONG ’UN.

  1811.  GROSE and CLARKE, Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. LAG. A man transported.

  1828.  BADCOCK (‘Jon Bee’), Living Picture of London, p. 39. A few are returned LAGS.

  1834.  W. H. AINSWORTH, Rookwood, iii. 5.

  1856.  C. READE, It Is Never Too Late to Mend, ix. ‘He fell in with two old LAGS who had a deadly grudge against the chaplain.’

  1859.  G. W. MATSELL, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v. LAG. A convicted felon.

  1864.  Daily Telegraph, 19 Oct. The country is so wild and unexplored, that the LAG who has traversed it, or could traverse it, might re-enter society as a hero if he would impart his adventures.

  1877.  W. H. THOMSON, Five Years’ Penal Servitude, i. 59. The prisoner who had acted as barber, and was an ‘old LAG,’ passing the door, told me, ‘Never mind cleaning your cell, we are all off to-day.’

  1889.  Answers, 23 March, p. 265, col. 3. In the old days many escapes were made from Chatham by expert swimmers. An old LAG (the slang term for prisoner) told me that twice in his recollection had men got clean away in this manner.

  1890.  HUME NISBET, Bail Up! 248. ‘Are the police coming.’ ‘I tinky not. Only that sundowny lun away like ol’ LAG.’

  1890.  Answers, 27 Dec. He ‘skedaddled out of the dock as quickly as he could,’ fearing that he might be recognised as an old LAG if he tarried unnecessarily.

  1891.  Times, 14 Sept. ‘Capital Punishment.’ ‘Jack, my dear fellow,’ they top a LAG out here (W. Aust.) for slogging a screw. That piece of rope is a rare check. A ‘screw’ means a ‘policeman’ as well as a ‘warder.’

  1892.  Tit-Bits, 19 March, 417, 1. Broadmoor for all LAGS as go off their chump.

  3.  (old cant).—See quots. Also LAGE.

  1573.  HARMAN, A Caveat or Warening for Common Cursetors (1814), p. 65. LAG, water.

  1610.  ROWLANDS, Martin Mark-all, 39 [Hunterian Club’s Reprint, 1874]. LAGGE, water or pisse.

  1641.  R. BROME, A Joviall Crew, ii.

  1665.  R. HEAD, The English Rogue, Pt. i. ch. v. p. 50 (1874). LAGE, Water.

  c. 1696.  B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v.

  1724.  A New Canting Dictionary, s.v.

  1724.  E. COLES, English Dictionary, s.v. LAGE o. water.

  1785.  GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.

  1811.  GROSE and CLARKE, Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.

  1859.  G. W. MATSELL, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.

  4.  (old cant).—See quots. Also LAGE.

  1567.  HARMAN, A Caveat or Warening for Common Cursetors, p. 86. Man. We wyll fylche some duddes of the Ruffemans, or myll the ken for a LAGGE of dudes.

  1610.  ROWLANDS, Martin Mark-all, 39 [Hunterian Club’s Reprint, 1874]. LAGGE of dudes, a bucke of clothes.

  1661.  FLETCHER, Beggar’s Bush, v. 1.

  c. 1696.  B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. LAG-A-DUDDS. We cloy the LAG of Duds, Come let us steal that Buck of Cloths.

  1725.  A New Canting Dictionary, s.v.

  1785.  GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.

  1811.  GROSE and CLARKE, Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.

  1859.  G. W. MATSELL, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.

  5.  (old).—See quots.

  c. 1696.  B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. LAG-A-DUDDS, LAGG of the Flock, the hindmost.

  1725.  A New Canting Dictionary, s.v.

  1785.  GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. LAG. LAG LAST, the last of a company.

  6.  (Westminster School).—A fag.

  1881.  PASCOE, ed. Everyday Life in Our Public Schools, 130. Every morning the ‘LAG’ junior prepares and brings to Hall the ‘list.’

  7.  (American theatrical).—1.  A dialogue or scene of extra length; also (2) a wait.

  1847.  J. M. FIELD, The Drama in Pokerville, 112. The champagne, for instance, was not always rivalled in spirit by the dialogue of the scene, and a LAG on the stage was immediately made up for by the pop of a cork!

  Verb. (thieves’).—1.  To transport; to send to penal servitude. LAGGED = (1) sentenced; and (2) imprisoned. Fr. aller à la grotto = TO LUMP THE LIGHTER (q.v.); also se laver les haricots.

  1819.  T. MOORE, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, p. 78. A relative of poor Crockey, who was LAGGED some time since.

  1811.  GROSE and CLARKE, Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. LAG. The cove was LAGGED for a drag. The man was transported for stealing something out of a waggon.

  1824.  SCOTT, St. Ronan’s Well, ch. xxxi. ‘I should not much like to have him LAGGED for forgery.’

  1830.  BULWER-LYTTON, Paul Clifford, p. 13. Ranting Rob, poor fellow, was LAGGED for doing a panny.

  1838.  DICKENS, Oliver Twist, ch. XLIII. ‘What do you mean by LAGGING and a lifer,’ demanded Mr. Bolter…. Being interpreted, Mr. Bolter would have been informed that they represented that combination of words, ‘Transportation for life.’

  1843.  W. T. MONCRIEFF, The Scamps of London, ii. 3. He was three times LAGGED.

  1843.  Punch, iv. p. 129. They say that a lord and a reverend were LAGGED the other day.

  1853.  Diogenes, ii. 54. Sad work when at last I was LAGGED.

  1859.  G. W. MATSELL, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.

  1869.  Daily News, 29 July. He should then be LAGGED for another job.

  1872.  Times, 2 Oct. ‘Report of Middlesex Sessions.’ He had expected to be LAGGED for a pocket handkerchief.

  1877.  W. H. THOMSON, Five Years’ Penal Servitude, iii. 192. A Welshman convicted or ‘LAGGED’ for passing ‘shise coin’—bad money.

  1879.  Macmillan’s Magazine, XL. 503. I should have got LAGGED and my pal too.

  1887.  BAUMANN, Londinismen, Slang und Cant, ‘A Slang Ditty,’ p. v.

  1880.  G. R. SIMS, How the Poor Live, p. 18. A day or two after Bill returns alone; the girl asks him where her sweetheart is. ‘He’s LAGGED,’ says Bill. But the girl has a bit of newspaper, and in it she reads that ‘the body of a man has been found in some woods near London’; and she has an idea it may be John.

  2.  (old cant).—To steal. For synonyms, see PRIG.

  1580.  TUSSER, Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie, ch. 20, st. 15, p. 54 (E.D.S.).

  3.  (old).—To catch.

  1580.  TUSSER, Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie, ch. 36, st. 25, p. 86 (E.D.S.).

  1858.  A. MAYHEW, Paved with Gold, Bk. III., ch. 1. p. 252. They tell him adventures of how they were nearly LAGGED by the constables.

  1891.  N. GOULD, The Double Event, 263. You’ll never LAG me alive, you cur.

  4.  (old).—TO PISS (q.v.).

  5.  (old: now recognised).—See quots.

  1596.  SPENSER, The Fairie Queene, VI. ii. 10.

  c. 1696.  B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. LAG-A-DUDDS. To LAGG behind, or come after with Salt and Spoons.

  1725.  A New Canting Dictionary, q.v.

  1725.  POPE, Odyssey, xiv. 244.

  1785.  GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. LAG. … to drop behind, to keep back.

  1811.  GROSE and CLARKE, Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.