Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a lazy monk; a reproachful name in regular use after the Reformation.

1538		Starkey England (1878) 131: The nuryschyng also of a grete sorte of idul abbey-lubbarys, wych are apte to no thyng but [...] only to ete and drynke.
1563		Halliwell Burnynge of Paules Church n.p.: The most of that which they did bestow was on the riche, and not on the poor indede... but lither lubbers that might worke and would not. In so much that it came into a commen proverbe to call him an abbay-lubber, that was idle, wel fed, a long lewd lither loiterer, that might worke and would not [F&H].
1578		Lyly Euphues and his England (1916) 98: Neither was I much unlike these abbey-lubbers in my life (though far unlike them in belief).
1589		Nashe Anatomie of Absurditie in Works I (1883–4) 14: The fantasticall dreames of those exiled Abbie-lubbers.
1602		E. Bulkley Apologie for Religion 134: As fat as an Abbot, he hath a face like an Abbot, and an Abbey Lubber [...] how these men were giuen to gluttonie and excesse, I will shew.
1611		R. Cotgrave Dict. of Fr. and Eng. Tongues n.p.: Archimarmiton-erastique an abbey-lubber, or Arch-frequenter of the Clooyster beefe-pot or beefe-boyler.
1630		G. Dichante World’s Woe n.p.: This makes Sir Iohn procure a liuing fat, / [...] / And like an Abbey-lubber gets the gaines, / When learnder men liues poore with greater paines.
1648		R. Herrick ‘The Temple’ Hesperides 104: Of Cloyster-Monks they have enow, I, and their Abbey-lubbers, too.
1655		Fuller Church Hist. of Britain Bk I 28: Abbey-labourers, not Abbey-lubbers like their Successours in after-Ages, who living in Lazinesse, abused the Bounty of their patrons.
1669		M. Conant Urim and Thummim 13: He [...] was no Hermite as to loving his ease, and indulging himself, like an Abbey-lubber, that could satisfie himself with the taking the Milk and the Wool of the flock without feeding them, .
1680		Dryden Spanish Fryar III iii: This is no huge, overgrown abbey lubber; this is but a diminutive sucking friar.
1693		W. Robertson Phraseologia Generalis 446: A porridge-belly Friar, an abbey lubber [F&H].
1705		E. Hickeringill Priest-Craft II 45: The Dissolution of Monasteries (that fed abby-lubbers and wanton Nuns).
1755		Johnson Dict. Eng. Lang. (1785).
1838		W. Holloway Dict. of Provincialisms 1/1: Abbey-Lubber, [...] inhabitants of Abbeys, being indolent.] (A lazy idle fellow).
1867		W.H. Smyth Sailor’s Word-Bk (1991) 12: Abbey-lubber. This is an old term of reproach for idleness, and here is quoted only as bearing upon the nautical lubber.