Chapter Law Latin to Le Roi le Veut of L by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

habits.
   (c) To prepare a corpse for the coffin, by placing the limbs in order, and dressing the body in its grave-clothes.

Lay about One (To). To strike on all sides.

“He'll lay about him to-day.”- Shakespeare: Trolius and Cressida, i. 2.

Lay by the Heels (To). To render powerless. The allusion is to the stocks, in which vagrants and other petty offenders were confined by the ankles, locked in what was called the stocks, common, at one time, to well-nigh every village in the land.

Lay of the Last Minstrel (For plot see Margaret .)

Lay to One's Charge (To). To attribute an offence to a person.

“And he [Stephen] kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord lay not this sin to their charge.”- Acts vii. 60. The phrase occurs again in the Bible, e.g. Deut. xxi. 8; Rom. viii. 33, etc.

Layamon who wrote a translation in Saxon of the Brut of Wace, in the twelfth century, is called The English Ennius. (See Ennius .)

Layers-over for Meddlers Nothing that concerns you. A reproof to inquisitive children who want to know what a person is doing or making, when the person so engaged does not think proper to inform them. A “layer-over” is a whip or slap. And a “layer-over for meddlers” is a whip or chastisement for those who meddle with what does not concern them.

Lazar House or Lazaretto. A house for poor persons affected with contagious diseases. So called from the beggar Lazarus (q.v.).

Lazarists A body of missionaries founded by St. Vincent de Paul in 1624, and so termed from the priory of St. Lazare, at Paris, which was their head-quarters from 1632 to 1792.

Lazarillo de Tormes (1553). A comic romance, something in the Gil Blas style, the object being to satirise all classes of society. Lazarillo, a light, jovial, audacious man-servant, sees his masters in their undress, and exposes their foibles. This work was written by Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, general and statesman of Spain, author of War against the Moors.

Lazarone (3 syl.); Italian Lazzaro, plu. Lazzaroni. The mob. Originally applied to all those people of Naples who lived in the streets, not having any habitation of their own. So called from the hospital of St. Lazarus, which served as a refuge for the destitute of that city. Every year they elected a chief, called the Capo Lazzaro. Masaniello, in 1647, with these vagabonds accomplished the revolution of Naples. In 1798 Michele Sforza, at the head of the Lazzaroni, successfully resisted Etienne Championnet, the French general.

Lazarus Any poor beggar; so called from the Lazarus of the parable, who was laid daily at the rich man's gate (St. Luke xvi.).

Lazy
   Lazy as David Lawrence's dog. Here Lawrence is a corruption of Larrence, an imaginary being supposed by Scottish peasantry to preside over the lazy and indolent. Laziness is called “Larrence.” (See and compare Davy Jones.)
   Lazy as Joe, the marine, who laid down has musket to sneeze. (Sailor's proverb.)
   Lazy as Ludlam's dog, which leaned has head against the wall to bark. This Ludlam was the famous sorceress of Surrey, who lived in a cave near Farnham, called “Ludlam's Cave.” She kept a dog, noted for its laziness, so that when the rustics came to consult the witch, it would hardly condescend to give notice of their approach, even with the ghost of a bark. (Ray: Proverbs.)