adj. (common).—Grand; rich; SWELL (q.v.). LARDY-DARDY = affected; effeminate: LARDY-DAH (or LA-DI-DA) = a swell or fop. TO DO or COME THE LARDY-DAH = to dress for the public.
1861. M. E. BRADDON, The Trail of the Serpent, Bk. IV. ch. vi. ‘You’re not much good, my friend, says I, with your LARDY-DARDY ways and your cold-blooded words, whoever you are.’
1870. London Figaro, 8 June. The fast young men among the natives—called in their favourite slang LARDY-DARDY coves—affect a pronunciation in which the ‘v’s’ are substituted for the ‘w’s,’ and vice versa.
1871. G. D. ATKIN, House Scraps, 166.
| The young ’un goes to music-halls, | |
| And does the LA-DI-DA. |
c. 1876. Broadside Ballad, ‘Tiddy Fol-Lol.’
| He’s no LARDY-DARDY swell, and he looks and dresses well, | |
| And he lives at an hotel, Tiddy fol lol, tiddy fol lol. |
1879. B. H. BUXTON, Nell—On and Off the Stage, xxv. p. 280 (1884). ‘Not one of your haw-haw, LARDY-DARDY, eyeglass simpletons.’
1890. Punch, 22 Feb. The skim-milk of life’s for the many, the LARDY few lap up the cream.
1892. MILLIKEN, ’Arry Ballads, 25. See LARDY toffs.
