or larky, larking, subs. (common).—Frolicsome: also rowdy.
1854. THACKERAY, The Rose and the Ring, p. 19. He was neither more nor less than a knocker! … and another night some LARKING young men tried to wrench him off, and put him to the most excruciating agony with a turnscrew.
1863. H. KINGSLEY, Austin Elliot, iv. Austin, expressing himself in that low, slangy way which the young men of the present day seem so conscious to adopt, said that my Lords were ‘uncommonly LARKY.’
1886. MACDONALD, What’s Mine’s Mine, ch. x. The girls felt LARKY.… They tripped gayly along.
1891. Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette, 3 April. A LARKY youngster who loved his wine and women.
1892. HUME NISBET, The Bushranger’s Sweetheart, 247. The landlady was a free-and-easy, buxom, and LARKY woman, who made us all feel at home in the place.
