Forms: 4–6 larde, 5 laard, 5 laurde, 4– lard. [a. OF. (mod.F.) lard bacon (= It., Sp., Pg. lardo):—L. lārdum, lāridum, usually believed to be cogn. w. Gr. λᾱρ-ῑνός fat, λᾱρ-ός pleasant to the taste.]
† 1. The fat of a swine; (fat) bacon or pork; rarely, other fat meat used for larding. Obs.
c. 1420. Liber Cocorum (1862), 12. Take larde of porke, wele soþyn. Ibid., 26. Take tho ox tonge … Sethe hit, broche hit in lard yche dele.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 288/1. Larde of flesche, larda.
c. 1460. Fortescue, Abs. & Lim. Mon., iii. (1885), 114. Thai eyten no flesshe but yf it be right seldon a litle larde.
1552. Huloet, Larde, succidia.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1658), 532. The fat of Swine they commonly call Lard which groweth betwixt the skin and the flesh.
1615. [see LARD v. 1].
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 997. She got a Peece of Lard with the Skin on, and rubbed the Warts all ouer with the Fat Side.
1693. Dryden, Ovid. Met., VIII. Baucis & P., 107. By this the boiling kettle had prepar’d And to the table sent the smoaking lard.
1725. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Swine, Feeding a Hog for Lard or Boar for brawn.
fig. a. 1613. Overbury, A Wife (1638), 290. Patience is the lard of the leane meat of adversitie.
† b. ? A slice of fat. Obs.
c. 1430. Two Cookery-bks., 49. Take lardez of Venysoun.
2. (Often hog’s lard.) The internal fat of the abdomen of a swine, esp. when rendered and clarified, much used in cooking, and in pharmacy as the basis of unguents.
c. 1420. Pallad. on Husb., I. 433. Frote hit wel with larde ffaat & decoct.
1556. Withals, Dict. (1568), 18 b/1. Axungia propriæ, is larde or hogges greace.
1704. Lond. Gaz., No. 4026/3. Lading, consisting of … Dry Codfish, Dry Jack, Hogslard.
1707. Mortimer, Husb. (1708), 189. If Hogs get a Swelling on the side of their Throat … anoint it with Hog’s Lard.
1811. A. T. Thomson, Lond. Disp. (1818), 728. The addition of the metallic solution to the melted mixture of lard and oil.
1825. J. Neal, Bro. Jonathan, I. 76. A kind of sweet cake fried in lard.
1836–9. Todd, Cycl. Anat., II. 232/2. When hog’s-lard becomes rancid, a peculiar volatile acid forms in it.
1873. E. Smith, Foods, 139. Lard is derived from the loose fat of the pig, and is a very pure fat.
b. transf.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, C v b. Yeue hir larde of a gote.
1835. W. Irving, Tour Prairies, 306. Fritters of flour fried in bear’s lard.
1849. Sk. Nat. Hist., Mammalia, III. 162. In the Greenland whale the layer of this subcutaneous lard varies from eight or ten to 20 inches in depth.
c. Earth lard (see quot.).
1801. Trans. Soc. Arts, XIX. 175. The Grubs of the Cockchafer … appear like lumps of white fat. Hence the British name ‘Earth-Lard.’
3. attrib., as lard-slice; lard-butter, -cheese, substitutes for butter and cheese made from lard; † lard-house = LARDER; lard-oil, ‘a valuable oil made from lard, used for burning, and for lubricating machinery’ (Ogilvie, 1882); lard-stone, a kind of soft stone found in China; cf. agalmatolite.
1881. Chicago Times, 16 April. Very little *lard-butter is now sold in Chicago. Ibid. Large amounts of butterine and *lard-cheese were sold here as the genuine article.
1555. Richmond. Wills (Surtees), 85. All the salting vessell in the *lardhouse.
1599. Minsheu, A Lardary, or lard-house.
a. 1693. Urquhart’s Rabelais, III. xxiii. 193. Some Lackey, snatching at the *Lard-slices.
1811. Pinkerton, Petral., I. 374. The rock called *lard-stone, used by the Chinese.
