lag of duds, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

lag of duds n.

[lag n.¹ + duds n.¹ (1); Harman’s orig. definition is ‘a buck of clothes’, f. SE buck, a washtub, and thus a ‘washtub’s measure of clothes’, buck contemporaneously meant lye, which would be used in the washing process]

a bundle of clothes for washing.

c.1566		Harman Caveat for Common Cursetours in Viles & Furnivall (1907) 86: We wyll fylche some duddes of the Ruffemans, or myll the ken for a lagge of dudes.
1592		Groundworke of Conny-catching [as cit. c.1566].
1608		Dekker Lanthorne and Candle-Light Ch. 1: We will filch some duddes: we will filch some clothes [...] Or mill the Ken: or rob the house. For a lagge of Duddes: for a buck of clothes.
1610		Rowlands Martin Mark-all E3: Lagge of dudes, a bucke of clothes.
1622		Beaumont & Fletcher Beggar’s Bush V i: Tell us, / If it be milling of a lag of duds, / The fetching off a buck of clothes.
1648		Dekker ‘Canters Dict.’ Eng. Villainies (9th edn).
1688		R. Holme Academy of Armory Ch. iii item 68c: Canting Terms used by Beggars, Vagabonds, Cheaters, Cripples and Bedlams. [...] Lage of Duds, a Buck of Cloaths.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Lag-a dudds, a Buck of Cloths. As we cloy the Lag of Dudds, come let us Steal that Buck of Cloths.
1719		A. Smith Lives of Most Notorious Highway-men, etc. (1926) 208: Lag-a-Duds, a buck of clothes; as we cloy the lag of duds, i.e., come let us steal that buck of clothes.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
c.1750–1882		B.M. Carew Life and Adventures.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
c.1850		Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.