Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also lob’s ward) a prison or enclosed space.

1597		E.S. Discovery of Knights of Poste B: Good oath-takers, or common baylers: Alias the Knightes of the Poste, the Lords of lobs pound, and heires apparant to the pillory.
1603		Dekker Batchelor’s Banquet in Grosart (1886) I 156: He ran wilfully into the perill of Lob’s pound.
1612		Pasquil’s Nightcap (1877) 64: Thus is the Woodcocke fall’n into the gin, And in Lobs-pound intangled by a wile.
1652		Mercurius Democritus 27 Oct. - 3 Nov. 233: When we are taken in Lobs Pound, / the Mare may then catch Moss.
1654		New Brawle 11: Knave thou art, Sirrah, I shall have you in Lob Ward again shortly.
1663		S. Butler Hudibras Pt I canto 3 line 910: Crowdero, whom in Irons bound, / Thou basely threw’st into Lob’s pound / Where still he lies.
1671		J. Crowne Juliana I i: Between ’um both he’s got into lobb’s pound .
1694		J. Eachard (trans.) Plautus’s Amphitryon I i: In what a fine Pickle shou’d I be, if Mr. Constable and his Watch shou’d pick m’up and in wi’ me to Lobs-Pound?
1708		W. Taverner Maid the Mistress IV i: We are in Lob’s Pound.
1728		J. Dalton Narrative of Street-Robberies 58: I am got into Lob’s Pound.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. n.p.: In Lob’s Pound, Laid by the Heels, or clap’d up in Jail.
c.1775		Hist. of Jack and the Giants Pt I 8: Faith you are got into Lob’s pound, where I will plague you for your threatening words.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Lob’s pound, a prison. Dr Grey [...] explains it to allude to one Doctor Lob, a dissenting preacher, who used to hold forth when conventicles were prohibited, and had made himself a retreat by means of a trap door at the bottom of his pulpit. Once being pursued by the officers of justice, they followed him [...] till they got into a dark cell, from whence they could not find their way out, but calling to some of their companions, swore they had got into Lob’s pound.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].
1817		M. Edgeworth Love and Law I v: The lock, mind now; not the key nor the bolt for your life, child, else you’d bolt your lady in, and there’d be my lady in Lob’s pound, and there’d be a pretty kettle of fish!
1819		‘One of the Fancy’ Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress 18: But the cull broke away, as he would from Lob’s pound.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc.
1828		Sussex Advertiser 14 Apr. 4/3: If Brown only gives you one of his teazers, you’ll ‘hop the twig’, or else he’ll be after repeating the dose, and get himelf into ‘lob’s pound’.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1840		Stamford Mercury 10 Jan. 3/5: Half a dozen of the thimble-rig gentry [...] were sent to Lob’s-pound to experience a month’s hospitality.
c.1850		Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.
1858		London Standard 19 May 6/2: [poem title] What made You in Lob’s pound to Go?
1894		West. Australian (Perth) 28 Sept. 6/1: Thee beest a busky-eyed chucklehead [...] Thee wants to bring thee and me to Lob’s pound.

2. the vagina [note lob n.³ ].

1623		Massinger Duke of Milan III ii: Who forc’d the Gentleman, to saue her credit, / To marie her, and say he was the partie / Found in Lobs pound.
1980		Maledicta IV:2 (Winter) 182: Other references to function occur in [...] grindstone, Lob’s pound (a hand quern).

3. fig. use of sense 1, i.e. trouble, a difficult situation.

1738		Swift Polite Conversation 10: O, faith Miss, you are in Lob’s pound, get out as you can.
1821		‘A Real Paddy’ Real Life in Ireland 166: By the bye he was near lobspound.
1891		Sheffield Teleg. 6 Feb. n.p.: For five years he has been fooling himself, fooling the country, and fooling the party, till at last he landed himself in the ‘Lob’s pound’ in which he now found himself.