Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (UK Und.) any kind of criminal activity; usu. modified by a participle that denotes the speciality, e.g. chiving-lay under chiv n.¹ ; clouting lay n.; crack lay under crack n.⁴ ; kid lay under kid n.¹ ; maundering lay under maunder v.

1707		Cibber Double Gallant I i: saun.: I never mind Accounts; I don’t understand ’em. sir sol.: Pray, Sir, what is’t you do understand? saun.: Bite, Bam, and the best of the Lay, old Boy.
1714		A. Smith Lives of Most Noted Highway-men, etc. I 165: One Humphrey Jackson, a Butcher, who [...] went upon the sweetening Lay of Luck in a Bag. [Ibid.] 191: She went upon the Question-Lay, which is putting herself into a good handsome Dress [...] then she takes an empty band-box in her Hand, and passing for a Milliner’s or Sempstress’s ’Prentice, she goes early to Person’s House, and [...] asks the Servant if the Lady is stirring yet [...] then the Servant going up Stairs to acquaint the Lady of this Message, she in the meantime robs the House, and goes away without an Answer.
1718		C. Hitchin Conduct of Receivers and Thief-Takers 13: Those three young Lads, altho’ they are young, yet they are Boman Prigs, and as such go on the Lay call’d the Dub.
1728		J. Dalton Narrative of Street-Robberies 34: Going upon that Lay, Susan made a Dive into a Gentleman’s Pocket.
1734		C. Johnson Hist. of Highwaymen &c. 142: He acquainted him with the several Lays which the Thieves went upon.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict.
1741		Canting Academy, or the Pedlar’s-French Dict. 117: A good or bad way of getting of Money Going upon a Rum Lay.
1753		J. Poulter Discoveries (1774) 9: We went into the North of England [...] on the sharping Lay, and won between thirty and forty Pounds at Cards, alias Broads.
1763		Proc. Old Bailey 14 Sept. 🌐 while he was drinking it came in Lydia Cox , who talked to him about his going on the scamp, and the lay, cant words used among thieves for going a thieving.
1764		Bloody Register I 126: He [...] then went upon the other lay, taking Lobs (portmanteaus, boxes, trunks, &c. from behind coches).
1781		G. Parker View of Society II 38: Should this Book come across any of the gentry on the scamp lay, it would teach them [...] to spare the poor.
1790		Jew Swindler n.p.: I have some hopes of a young Gentleman’s note this afternoon, but he seems cruel leary [...] says that friend of his who has been done at this lay.
1818		W. Perry London Guide vi: Great numbers of lads upon every kind of lay.
1821		W.T. Moncrieff Tom and Jerry II vi: We haven’t had a better job a long vile nor the shabby genteel lay. That, and the civil rig, told in a pretty penny.
1829		‘Pickpocket’s Chaunt’ (trans. of ‘En roulant de vergne en vergne’) in Vidocq (1829) IV 259: As from ken to ken I was going, / Doing a bit on the prigging lay.
1836		Bell’s Wkly Messenger 11 Dec. 398/1: I, like a fool that i was, told her all about my lay with Jim.
1843		Satirist & Sporting Chron. (Sydney) 25 Feb. 3/2: Claud cannot pay / This nasty, teasing bill, / So this very day, I’ll be off on the lay [i.e. street-walking] / And, damme, I’ll see who will.
1848		Ladies’ Repository (N.Y.) Oct. VIII:37 316/1: Crack lay, an expedition for the purpose of house-breaking. [...] Crib lay, an expedition for the purpose of stealing out of houses.
1851		G. Thompson Jack Harold 60: Cabin lay – robbing vessels.
1857		Bell’s Life in Victoria (Melbourne) 4 July 4/3: So, pals, here you’ll find as I’m fly, / For the lay as’ll best stand the shot.
1861		N.E. Police Gaz. (Boston, MA) 12 Oct. 5/3: Nell Parker, of Marm Sleeny’s [...] has taken to the street walking lay.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 19/1: There is no other ‘mob’ hereabouts on the same ‘lay’ that we are upon.
1870		N.Y. Times 8 Aug. 8/1–2: The ‘eatable lay,’ which was a simple but dangerous way of carrying off the silver on the dining-room table.
1877		Five Years’ Penal Servitude 144: His peculiar ‘lay’ or line of business, which always brought him into trouble, was the stealing of pewter pots.
1886		‘Lady Kate, the Dashing Female Detective’ in Roberts et al. Old Sleuth’s Freaky Female Detectives (1990) 14/3: She had struck many big bonanzas in her professional career, but it appeared as though she had struck upon the best ‘lay’ of all her life.
1890		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘Otherwise Engaged’ Sporting Times 22 Mar. 1/3: Had he finished up the day with the luncheon lifting lay, / To his capers there would not have been a check.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 44: Lay, some particular line of rascality.
1900		Marvel XIII:322 Jan. 5: If any one of you care to undertake the working of this lay [...] just say so.
c.1900		[perf. Vesta Tilley] Please, sir, I’ve lost my way 🎵 ‘Why, that's a pair / Of latest London's swindlers [...] / He’s not a bobby, she’s his wife, that artful lay they work.
1907		Sun. Times (Perth) 20 Jan. 4/7: For, on the Ascot course one dusty day, / I watched a jockey on the Roping Lay.
1914		E. Pugh Cockney At Home 164: Then [...] there’s your flash cove. Your fly-flat. Knows nothin’, an’ don’t even know he knows that. The out-an’-out, whiney-piney’s the lay with him.
1915		Truth (Brisbane) 25 July 3/3: ‘What yer want openin’ up on a bloke what’s livin’ respectable now, fer?; I ain’t worked a crook lay fer five year’.
1917		F. Packard Adventures of Jimmie Dale (1918) I xi: You’re supposed to have snitched the lay to us, that’s all.
1923		South Eastern Times (Millicent, SA) 27 Mar. 4/5: Every professional criminal sticks closely to his own particular branch of whatever ‘lay’ he adopts.
1928		M.C. Sharpe Chicago May (1929) 142: Maurice’s lay was to get his friends to steer Americans, who wanted to smoke, to his place.
1937		T. Thursday ‘Good Luck is No Good’ Federal Agent Nov. 🌐 The lay is right and I feel lucky as hell.
1945		T. Thursday ‘You Gotta Have Luck’ Popular Sports Jan. n.p.: ‘Okay, okay!’ snapped Gypsy. ‘What’s the lay?’.

2. any form of enterprise, business or occupation; often the terms or conditions of such a contract or job.

1706		Burton Hist. of the Reign of Queen Anne (1880) II 159: After having reconnoitred it [Alicant], I would have given something to have been off of the lay, having found it quite another sort of place than what it was represented to me to be [F&H].
1713		R. Wodrow Analecta II (1842) 257: I hear that the Treasurer has been at much pains to bribe Steele off the lay that he is upon.
1732		Harlot’s Progress 27: Kitt would propose — such Postures Play, / As those who understood the Lay.
1753		J. Poulter Discoveries (1774) 42: What Ridge or Lay do you go on in this Gaff or Vile; what Business do you go on in this Fair or Town.
1772		Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 409: The Greeks [...] Were drawn into so bad a lay / They could not fetch themselves away.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Lay, enterprize, pursuit, or attempt.
1797		Bridges Burlesque Homer (4th edn) II 213: [as cit. 1772].
1812		Mr Lawson ‘Chaunt’ in Egan Boxiana I 477: He was beaten black and blue, sirs, / By one deep in the fancy lay.
1818		‘A. Burton’ Adventures of Johnny Newcome IV 249: I’m sick and weary of the lay!
1850		‘Ned Buntline’ G’hals of N.Y. 18: I’m goin’ to try my hand on another lay.
1850		Illus. London News 31 Aug. 183/2: The words I heard were [...] couched in the purest and raciest Houndsditch slang [...] ‘l shay, young’un, here’s a shance; fork up a bob, and I’ll put you on a lay you never know nothink of, to vin no end of monish vith the ivories, or the blacks and reds’.
1862		‘Artemus Ward’ Artemus Ward, His Book 65: You air full of sentiments. That’s your lay, while I’m a exhibiter of startlin curiosities.
1882		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 28 Jan. 2/3: ‘[C]ranks’ who adopt the ‘inspirational’ lay and who lug out the Deity to dodge behind when the policeman goes for them.
1873		W.H. Thomes Bushrangers 94: Can’t you tell me what lay you are on, and what you intend to do in Melbourne?
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 5: Lay - A pursuit or practice, a dodge.
1884		‘’Arry at a Political Pic-Nic’ Punch 11 Oct. 180/1: The latest new lay’s Demonstrations.
1888		R. Barnett Police Sergeant C 21 132: What new lay are you going to shove yourself on, superintendent?
1891		Bird o’ Freedom (Sydney) 7 Feb. 3/3: ‘Yer don’t catch mo on that ’ere lay, / So none o’ yor bally larks’.
1899		R. Whiteing No. 5 John Street 210: Does the Jew’s Poker, Saturdays [...] though it’s a poor lay summer-time.
1902		J. Masefield ‘Fever-Chills’ Salt-Water Ballads 18: Come none o’ your Cape Horn fever lays aboard o’ this yer ship.
1903		H. Lawson ‘Diogenes’ in Roderick (1972) 692: Now, the search-for-an-honest-man game was about played out, and the old man hadn’t thought up a new lay yet.
1910		‘G.B. Lancaster’ Jim of the Ranges 22: You’re not thinkin’ you’re on a soft lay, are you?
1916		J. Lait ‘Charlie the Wolf’ Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 48: What’s your lay?
1922		Joyce Ulysses 280: - That the lay you’re on now? says Joe. – Ay, says I. How the mighty are fallen! Collector of bad and doubtful debts.
1933		M. Marshall Tramp-Royal on the Toby 64: So we parted; my china to try his arm at the chanting lay and I to bruise my knuckles at the knocking stunt.
1945		A. Christie Sparkling Cyanide (1955) 161: I had orders to get on friendly terms with Lord Dewsbury – that was my lay.
1958		Southern & Hoffenberg Candy (1970) 153: Natch I was hip to the lay the moment I dug his joint.
1964		B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 137: Now boys, whilst you out there slippin’ and slidin’ be sure to take your time / and anchor some a your lays in some First State Dime.

3. the life and practice of crime, as in the lay.

1895

H.B.M. Watson New Rev. July 2: For it was his aim to stand in security somewhere half-way ’twixt us fellows and the Law, and squeeze the both; and but that he had the lives of scores upon his tongue, and was very useful withal at a pinch, both to us on the lay and to the traps, he would have been hanged or pistolled for his pains long since [F&H].

4. stolen goods.

1807

H. Tufts Autobiog 293: To scrag a lay . . . to take clothes from the hedges.

5. (US) one’s (hidden) intention or aim.

1838		Dickens Oliver Twist (1966) 386: The lay is just to take their money away .
1858		A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 284: Come, out with it? What’s your lay?
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor III 98/1: I couldn’t believe it at first, but when I see which was their lay, then says I, ‘Now I’ll settle this’.
1877		Five Years’ Penal Servitude 236: I know a better lay than that.
1887		Bulletin (Sydney) 15 Oct. 14/2: The man pleaded pertinaciously, but deferentially withal [...]. Then the sundowner changed his lay [...].
1901		Boy’s Own Paper 13 Apr. 437: ‘What’s the lay, matey?’ said he. ‘Going to join your ship?’.
1917		F. Packard Adventures of Jimmie Dale (1918) I ii: ‘Wot’s de lay, Runt?’ he whispered.
1925		Black Mask Aug. III 60: Shoot! What’s the lay?
1936		R. Chandler ‘Goldfish’ Red Wind (1946) 183: Haven’t seen a dick in a year. To talk to. What’s your lay?
1945		N. Marsh Died in the Wool (1963) 239: Inviting them to come and have another pop at you, sir? is that the lay? Taking a risk, aren’t you?

6. (UK Und.) a place considered for robbing.

1848		E. Judson Mysteries of N.Y. 36: ’Ave you found a bang-up lay?
1924		G. Henderson Keys to Crookdom 410: Lay. A place to burglarize.
1936		J. Curtis Gilt Kid 101: If he could get one of these lays weighed up properly there would be an even break of getting a good night’s wages.

7. (US) a state of affairs.

1877		Bartlett Dict. Americanisms (4th edn) 346: Lay. Situation; condition; relative aspect. ‘The lay of the land,’ the situation of affairs.
1916		J. Lait ‘Canada Kid’ Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 159: I takes one look an’ I tumbles to the lay.
1925		D. Hammett ‘The Scorched Face’ Story Omnibus (1966) 90: I’ll give you the lay.
1933		J. Gray ‘The Nudist Gym Death Riddle’ Vice Squad Detective 🌐 What’s the lay, kid? Has anyone left this joint?
1942		C. Himes ‘Strictly Business’ Coll. Stories (1990) 143: He wormed in and out, hurried but not hasty, casing the lay as he went.
1957		G. Kersh Fowlers End (2001) 273: I still don’t get this lay.

8. (Aus.) a trick, a deception.

1914

E. Dyson Spats’ Fact’ry (1922) 39: Another lay that’s popular with lads what don’t want their girls t’ cherish mad idears is the mag about marriage bein’ barred by the great hinistitution what pays ’em [...] for their valuable services.

9. an obsession, a subject.

1924

C.J. Dennis ‘Faltering Knight’ Rose of Spadgers 🌐 When they git on that lay, / Wise coves adjourns the meet, an’ fades away.