Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also large lad) a penis.

1922		Joyce Ulysses 225: The lad stood to attention anyhow, he said with a sigh. She’s a gamey mare and no mistake.
1984		J. McGahern A Ballad in High Ground (1993) 28: O’Reilly got Rachael to take his lad in her mouth [...] Then he wouldn't let her spit it out.
1996		P. Howard The Joy (2015) [ebook] I’m sending telepathic signals downwards, ordering me lad to behave himself. If it starts trying to burrow its way out of me tracksuit bottoms, then I’ll never live it down.
2001		G. Coughlan Everyday Eng. and Sl. 🌐 Large Lad (n): mickey, willy, penis.
2001		N. Griffiths Sheepshagger 143: My fuck, Griff whispers. – What the fuck’s happened to his lad.
2004		P. Howard PS, I Scored the Bridesmaids 11: Listening to your lad.

2. any inanimate object; for cit. 1914, note a ref. in 1950 Flann O’Brien, ‘J.J. & Us’, The Hair of the Dogma (1989) 136: [referring to an extra comma introduced in an editing error in the Penguin edn of Dubliners and thereby changing the meaning] ‘That comma after “this” – have we a word for it? Yes: BLASPHEMY.’.

1914		Joyce ‘Ivy Day in the Committee Room’ Dubliners (1st edn only) 160: ‘Which is my bottle?’ he asked. ‘This lad,’ said Mr Henchy.
c.1940–5		‘Myles na gCopaleen’ Best of Myles (1968) 287: Do you see that? That thing there? Cigarettes. Them lads [...] Them lads has me destroyed.
1995		A. Higgins Donkey’s Years 287: Injections for pernicious anaemia kept her alive. ‘Without those lads,’ the doctor had warned her [...] ‘you wouldn’t walk the length of this room.’.

3. a creature.

1922

Joyce Ulysses 586: It’s them black lads I objects to. I hate those buggers. Sucks your blood dry, they does.

4. a fox.

1995		Irish Times 23 Dec. n.p.: The latter activity [hunting] has spawned some interesting prose and verse, often respectful of the fox – known, for example, as ‘the lad’ [BS].
2024		Bluesky 19 May 🌐 [pic. caption of fox in churchyard] This lad nearly walked into today's service.

5. (N.Z. prison) in pl., constr. with the, one’s fellow inmates.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 103/1: lads, the n. = boys, the sense 1.

6. (also bad lad) constr. with the, cancer.

1992		P. Bracken Light of Other Days 121: Cancer was never mentioned by name. ‘The Lad’ was the sympathetic form of allusion and it was an illness that was often denied .
1995		S. Connaughton Border Diary n.p.: I met a friend the other day who referred to cancer as ‘the bad lad’. He wouldn’t say the word [BS].

7. (UK black) a popular and admirable male.

2017		hubpages.com ‘Roadman Slang 10 Jan. 🌐 Lad - a well-liked male.
2019		A. Killilea Boyo-wulf at https://boyowulf.home.blog 14 Apr. 🌐 Go on the bais, we have finally got to the part of the poem where Absolute Lad Grendel is introduced.