lully, n.¹ — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

lully n.¹

also lally, lulley, lulleys

[? SE laundry or lilywhite]

(UK Und.)

1. wet or drying linen.

c.1661		‘A Beggar I’ll Be’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 27: For such pretty Pledges, as Lullies from hedges, / We are not in fear to be drawn upon Sledges.
1753		J. Poulter Discoveries (1774) 40: Gipsies [...] are great Priggers of Lulley; that is, Linen.
1785		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Lulleys, wet linen, (cant).
a.1790		H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795).
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum n.p.: Lullies. Wet linen. Cant.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 47: Lullies, wet linen.

2. a shirt; thus dabble one’s lally v., to wash a shirt.

1789		G. Parker Life’s Painter 157: Dabble your lally, wash your shirt.
1801		G. Hangar Life, Adventures and Opinions II 60: Your flash-man, is [...] dorsing a darkey upon the queer roost with some other rum blowen, who is kind enough to dabble his lully in the morning whilst he lies in bed.
1845		G.W.M. Reynolds Mysteries of London vol. 2 142: Lully Shirt.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 47: Lully, a shirt.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.

lully-prigger (n.) [prig v.² (1)]

1. one who steals from washing lines or from wherever washing has been put out to dry.

1753		J. Poulter Discoveries (1774) 40: They are great priggers of lully.
1781		G. Parker View of Society II 144: Lully-Priggers. People who steal linen from hedges, get over walls and take the wet linen from the lines upon which laundresses hang it.
c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Lully priggers. Thieves who steal wet Linnen.
1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn).
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1828		Sussex Advertiser 14 Apr. 4/3: [We] soon passed a long string of gaggers, priggers, Adam Tylers, fancy coves, autum [sic] morts, gammoners, sweetners, uprightmen, bully huffs, lully priggers, star gazers, and coves of all sorts.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 47: Lully Priggers, thieves who rob clothes-lines.

2. a thief who catches and strips a child of its clothing.

a.1790		H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795) n.p.: lully-prigger the lowest and meanest order of thieves, who go about decoying little children to some bye-corner , and then rob them of their clothes.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. 21: Lully priggers, the lowest order of thieves, who decoy children to some bye place and rob them of their clothes.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open [as cit. 1835].
c.1850		Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.

lully-prigging (n.) (also lully-snow-prigging) [prig v.² (1)]

(UK Und.) the theft of washing.

1789		G. Parker Life’s Painter 140: moll: How do you work now? tolobon nan: O, upon the old slang, and sometimes a little lully-priging.
1801		G. Hangar Life, Adventures and Opinions II 60: Various impositions, practised daily on the unwary [...] such as lully-prigging, dobbing the cant.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant n.p.: lully-snow-prigging stealing children’s wet linen off the hedges.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. 21: Lully snow prigging – stealing wet linen from hedges.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open [as cit. 1835].