subs. (American thieves’).—See quot.
1859. G. W. MATSELL, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v. LEAF. … ‘I will be out in the LEAF,’ I will be out in the autumn.
TO GO OFF WITH THE FALL OF THE LEAF, verb. phr. (Irish).—See quot.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. LEAF, TO GO OFF WITH THE FALL OF THE LEAF, to be hanged; criminals hanged in Dublin, being turned off from the outside of the prison, by the falling of a board, propped up, and moving on a hinge like the leaf of a table.
