Forms: α. 5 lanȝer, 5–6, 9 dial. lanyer, 7 lannier, 9 dial. lanner. β. 7 lanyeard, lennerd, 7–9 lan(n)iard, 8 erron. land yard, 8– lanyard. [A re-adoption of F. lanière (see LAINER).]
† 1. = LAINER. Obs.
1483. Cath. Angl., 208/1. A lanȝer, ligula.
1530. Palsgr., 237/2. Lanyer of lether, lasniere.
1787. Marshall, Norfolk (1795), II. 383. Lanniard, the thong of a whip.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Lanner, Lanyer, the lash of a whip.
2. Naut. ‘A short piece of rope or line made fast to anything to secure it, or as a handle’ (Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk.).
a. Used to secure the shrouds and stays.
1626. Capt. Smith, Accid. Yng. Sea-men, 15. They haue all of them pullies,… Lanyeards, caskets, and crowes feete. Ibid. (1627), Seaman’s Gram., v. 19. Those Lanniers are many small Ropes reeued into the dead mens eyes of all shrouds.
1709. Lond. Gaz., No. 4543/1. Having … cut all the Land yards of the Falmouth’s Fore and Mizen-shrowds.
1748. Anson’s Voy., I. x. 104. We exerted ourselves the best we could … to reeve new lanyards.
1833. M. Scott, Tom Cringle (1862), 347. A hammock, slung … by two lanyards fastened to rings.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, Gloss., Lanyards, ropes rove through the dead-eyes, for setting up rigging.
1881. Sir T. Martin, Horace, I. xiv. Dost thou not … hear thy lanyards moan and shriek?
b. Used for firing a gun.
1825. H. B. Gascoigne, Nav. Fame, 95. Captains of the guns their Laniards bear.
1836. Marryat, Midsh. Easy, xxx. The captains of the guns had dropped their lanyards in disappointment.
1861. W. H. Russell, in Times, 10 July, 5/4. The gunner pulled the lanyard hard, but the tube did not explode.
1876. Daily News, 30 Sept., 2/2. The artillerymen would clearly have no objection to firing the gun themselves with a lanyard.
c. Used for various other purposes.
1669. Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., I. 17. Stand by to hawl off above the Lennerd of the Whipstaff.
1797. Nelson, in Nicolas, Disp. (1845), II. 417. Four ladders, (each of which to have a lanyard four fathoms long).
1864. Reader, 8 Oct., 454. A small knife lashed with a lanyard to the wrist.
1883. Stevenson, Treas. Isl., II. x. He carried his crutch by a lanyard round his neck.
1897. R. Kipling, Captains Courageous, 76. The lanyard of a bell that hung just behind the windlass.
d. The material of which lanyards are made.
1862. Times, 7 March, 6/1. A packing of lanyard [was] put between the armour plates and screw nuts of many of the chief bolts, to deaden the concussion.
1883. Fisheries Exhib. Catal., 24. Tarred Russian Hemp Laniard.
