Green’s Dictionary of Slang

lubber n.

a fool.

c.1367–86		Langland Piers Plowman (B) V Prol. 55: Grete lobies and longe that loth were to swynke.
1512		Hickscorner Avii: Thou lubber Imagynacyon That cuckolde thy fader, where is he become.
c.1535		R. Copland Hye way to the Spyttel House Bii: Some beggearly churles to whome they resort / Be the maynteners of a great sorte / Of myghty lubbers.
1545		R. Ascham Toxophilus (1761) II 129: A man shooteth [...] like a lubber, starteth backe, and beareth no weight.
1550		Udall Ralph Roister Doister III iii: For the veriest dolt that ever was born: / And veriest lubber, sloven and beast.
1562		W. Bullein Bk of Sicke Men and Medicenes fol. 73: When the people did see him daunce so lively, like a lubber in a nette, Lord how thei laughed this Carpet Squire to skorne.
1579		S. Gosson School of Abuse (1868) 50: To lye like Lubbers in the Ship of the common wealth.
1583		P. Stubbes Anatomie of Abuses 91: A great sorte of idle lubbers.
c.1591		Shakespeare Two Gentlemen of Verona II v: A notable lubber, as thou reportest him to be.
1600		Dekker Shoemakers’ Holiday IV iv: A foul drunken lubber.
1616		W. Haughton English-Men For My Money G2: Well, what shall we do with this Lubber?
1621		R. Burton Anatomy of Melancholy (1892) II 156: The rest of these great Zanzummins, or gigantical Anakims, heavy, vast, barbarous Lubbers.
1639		R. Davenport New Tricke to Cheat the Divell III i: con: The Friers? what Friers? wo: Two Abbey Lubbers that are lockt up fast.
1639		J. Taylor Juniper Lecture 29: You a Husband: you a Coxcombe, a meere Lubby, a Moon-calf, one that hath more haire than wit.
1655		‘Du Parc’ (trans.) Comical Hist. of Francion Bk xii 37: A great Lubber came down the Stairs, having a Sword in one hand, and a Bulls pizzle in the other.
a.1661		‘City Ballad’ Rump Poems and Songs (1662) II 38: If he had but the life / And spirit of his Wife, / He would not lye still like a Lubber.
c.1663		‘In Laudis Navis Geminæ’ in Carpenter Verse in English from Tudor & Stuart Eng. (2003) 397: And tho to see to Lust Swabbers, / Weerfe yet but Cowards and fearfull Lubbers.
1675		C. Cotton Scoffer Scoff’d (1765) 223: And (thou great Lubber) tho’ thou art / A pretty Fellow with thy Club.
1680		M. Stevenson Wits Paraphras’d 78: And think you such a senseless Lubbard / Can prize the Treasure of your Cup-board.
1687		T. Brown Saints in Uproar in Works (1760) I 73: A huge, two-handed lubber, St. Christopher I think they call him.
1698		N. Ward London Spy II 42: You Horse turdly spawn of a Fresh water Lubber.
1700		Congreve Way of the World IV i: How can you name that superannuated lubber?
c.1707		‘The Scotch Wedding’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) II 139: Ah Jenny sen ater me, wit ta ha Jockey to thy wadded Loon, to have and to hold for aver and aver, forsaking aw other Loons, lubberloons, black Lips, blue Nases, an aw Swiggbell’d caves?
1714		J. Gay Shepherd’s Week 4th Pastoral 31: I rue the Day [...] When Lubberkin to Town his Cattle drove.
1725		New Canting Dict. n.p.: Lubber Lubberly, a heavy, dull Fellow.
1728		Caledonian Mercury 16 Jan. 2/2: He snorts, he paws, and with one Bound, Tosses the Lubber on the Ground.
1732		‘An Irish Wedding’ in A. Carpenter Verse in Eng. in 18C Ireland (1998) 113: From getting of Corn-Fields, where idle Lubbers won’t reap ’em / [...] / Good Lord deliver us.
1733		Laugh and Be Fat 155: Let none lie a-bed like a Lubber.
1748		Scots Mag. 1 Dec. 23/2: Faithless Lubberkin forgets his vow.
1757		Smollett Reprisal II xiv: None of your jaw, you lubber.
1762		Bridges Homer Travestie (1764) I 91: Now, when the pretty girl was gone, / He cry’d like any lubber-loon.
1770		Midnight Rambler 26: You spawn of a freshwater lubber, why don’t you bear a hand with the toddy.
1782		‘Peter Pindar’ ‘Lyric Odes’ Works (1794) I 32: And takes a hobby-horse to gall his pride, That flings him, like a lubber, in the dirt.
1794		W. Godwin Caleb Williams (1966) 32: The activity of his mind [...] showed itself in the rude tricks of an overgrown lubber.
1800		‘Song’ Jovial Songster 11: Why the rhyno we work hard for you know; / Not to hoard it like lubbers, but spend it, boys, like men.
1812		W. Tennant Anster Fair III xl 66: The long-ear’d lubbards in an even line / Then sat awaiting [...] When James’s herald should y-twang the sign.
1815		‘British Sailor’ Sailor’s Vocal Repository 3: So I look’d like a lubber, my messmates all laughed, While pardon I ask’d of Miss Polly.
1821		‘A Real Paddy’ Real Life in Ireland 291: Not so much a friend, said a young Lub.
1827		T. Morton A School For Grown Children IV iii: A reel, you lubber? You can dance that when you are drunk.
1830		‘Poll & Partner Joe’ Batchelar’s Vocal Bazaar 7: For him a lubber, no [...] I was finely trick’d.
1840		T. Haliburton Letter-bag of the Great Western (1873) 14: I wouldn’t ab dem if dey work for noting, de great good for noting lubbers.
1843		W.L. Rede Our Village II ii: What sort of lubbers are they here at Portsmouth, that you ain’t got a husband yet?
1850		E.V. Kenealy Goethe: a New Pantomime 192: Druggel, lubbard, lout, and varlet!
1851		Melville Moby Dick (1907) 142: Aye, aye! it was that accursed white whale that razed me; made a poor pegging lubber of me for ever and a day!
1854		Delhi Sketch Bk 1 July 79/1: One ignorant lubber / Sinds lashins o’ Kubber / Regardin the prices of cotton.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 384/2: Us sailor chaps sometimes sharks the Custom-house lubbers, sharp as they are.
1873		W.H. Thomes Slaver’s Adventures 16: ‘Looks as though he might know somethingl — a lubber from a sailor,’ grunted the captain.
1887		G. Devol Forty Years a Gambler 194: There, sprawled out on the floor, lay the big lubber that I had knocked over.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 47: Lubber, a fool or awkward person.
1899		Boy’s Own Paper 15 Apr. 451: One lazy lubber wanted to slump off for grog in the midst of the forenoon watch.
1900		Boy’s Own Paper 20 Oct. 42: I do believe the lubber has stove us!
1913		C. Mackenzie Sinister Street I 207: Take your hands out of your pockets, you insolent little lubber.
1920		S. Lewis Main Street (1921) 256: A big lubber like Cy Bogart.
c.1939		B. Bennett ‘The Eskimos’ Billy Bennett’s Fifth Budget 22: The poor old lubber goes to get a feed of blubber.
1945		R.S. Close Love me Sailor 119: Go on you big . . . big lubber!

In derivatives

lubberly (adj.)

foolish, stupid.

1759

L. Pilkington Mrs Pilkington’s Jests 3: What! two lubberly Boobies upon the Back of one poor Ass?