[ad. med.L. lobium or lobia: see LODGE sb.
From quot. 1553 it would appear that the word came into Eng. as a monastic term; hence there is no improbability in supposing the med.L. word to be the immediate source.]
† 1. ? A covered walk, cloister (in a monastery).
1553. Becon, Religues of Rome (1563), 53. Our Recluses neuer come out of their lobbeis, sincke or swimme the people.
2. A passage or corridor connected with one or more apartments in a building, or attached to a large hall, theater, or the like; often used as a waiting-place or ante-room.
1593. Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., IV. i. 61. How in our voyding Lobby hast thou stood, And duly wayted for my comming forth? Ibid. (1602), Ham., II. ii. 161. Sometimes He walkes foure houres together, heere in the Lobby.
1603. Drayton, Bar. Wars, VI. lxiii. 147. Thus in the Lobby as they freely were Charg’d on the suddaine by this armed trayne.
1607. Shaks., Timon, I. i. 80. All those which were his Fellowes but of late,… Follow his strides, his Lobbies fill with tendance.
1609. B. Jonson, Sil. Wom., IV. v. Doe you obserue this gallerie? or rather lobby, indeed?
1673. Dryden, Marr. à la Mode, III. i. Wks. 1883, IV. 303. I have such a tendre for the court, that I love it even from the drawing-room to the lobby.
1726. Leoni, Alberti’s Archit., I. 79/2. All … shou’d be so joined together by the Roof and by Lobbies, that the Servants … may not be called as it were out of another House.
1741. Richardson, Pamela (1824), I. xxviii. 45. I went into the lobby leading to the great hall, and dropt into the first chair.
1806–7. J. Beresford, Miseries Hum. Life (1826), V. v. Fretting and freezing in the outer lobbies and at the street doors of the theatre.
1842. Dickens, Amer. Notes (1850), 148/1. The box lobby of a theatre.
1842. Tennyson, Walking to Mail, 29. A jolly ghost, that shook The curtains, whined in lobbies, tapt at doors.
1863. Geo. Eliot, Romola, lvi. Passing through a small lobby, they came to another open door.
1882. Miss Braddon, Mt. Royal, III. i. 18. Christabel ran down to the lobby that opened into the stable yard.
b. Naut. (See quots.)
1815. Falconer’s Dict. Marine (ed. Burney), Lobby, in a ship, is a small apartment adjoining the fore part of the bread room, and appropriated to the use of the surgeon.
c. 1850. Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 130. Lobby. A name sometimes given to an apartment close or next before the great cabin bulk-head.
c. Agric. A small enclosure for cattle adjoining the farm-yard.
1777. Marshall, Min. Agric., II. Digest 21, note. Farmery. The Slip or Lobby is entered from the Common.
1819. in Rees, Cycl., s.v.
d. A watchman’s ‘box’ in a factory.
1902. Daily Chron., 19 June, 10/3. [A witness, watchman at Messrs. Doulton’s, said:] He then sat in his ‘lobby,’ seventy yards from the gate, till four.
3. spec. In the House of Commons, and other houses of legislature, a large entrance-hall or apartment open to the public, and chiefly serving for interviews between members and persons not belonging to the House; also (more fully division lobby), one of the two corridors to which members retire to vote when the House divides.
1640. in Rushw., Hist. Coll., III. (1692), I. 1. The outward Room of the Commons House, called the Lobby,… where the Cryer of the Chancery first made Proclamation in the King’s name.
1648. C. Walker, Hist. Independ., I. 40. Refusing to let some Members passe out of the House, or come forth into the Lobby.
1648. Nedham, Mercurius Pragmat., No. 39. 20 Dec., Col. Pride … caused them [Members] to retreat into the Lobby, where they use to drink Ale and Tobacco.
1695. Sheffield (Dk. Buckhm.), Sp. Ho. Peers, 18 April, Wks. 1723, II. 123. I think the first time I propos’d it was here in the bishops lobby.
1772. Ann. Reg., 196/1. While I waited in the lobby during the debate.
1798. I. Allen, Hist. Vermont, 207. Colonel Allen went into the lobby, and began to write a memorial to the Legislature of New Hampshire.
1845. Disraeli, Sybil (1863), 171. The mysteries of the Lobby are only for the initiated. Three quarters of an hour after the division was called, the result was known to the exoteric world.
1865. Bright, Sp. Canada, 23 March. If the hon. member divides, I shall go into the same lobby with him.
1887. Spectator, 6 Aug., 1046/1. Considerations which chiefly determine the lobby into which Members of Parliament go.
b. collect. Those who frequent the lobbies of the House or who vote in a particular lobby; U.S. the persons who frequent the lobby of the house of legislature for the purpose of influencing its members in their official action; the body of lobbyists.
1859. Bartlett, Dict. Amer., Lobby, the persons who frequent the lobby of a house of legislature.
1884. Century Mag., March, 655/1. The lobby and corruption are legitimate subjects for satire.
1888. Bryce, Amer. Commw., I. I. App. 555. ‘The Lobby’ is the name given in America to persons, not being members of a legislature, who undertake to influence its members, and thereby to secure the passing of bills.
1892. Pall Mall Gaz., 25 March, 2/3. The friends of the eight hours movement have great reason to be satisfied not only with the number but the quality of their lobby.
4. attrib. and Comb., as lobby correspondent, door, fire, -lounger, -lounging, room, stove, -table, -wicket; lobby-member, a lobbyist.
1886. Pall Mall Gaz., 11 Oct., 8/2. When Mr. L. was *lobby correspondent he was invariably entrusted with the publication of any items of information which Mr. Chamberlain wished to be made known.
1768. Chron., in Ann. Reg., 151/2. The *lobby door of the King’s bench prison.
1799. E. Du Bois, Piece Family Biog., III. 73. Chatting in high glee with one of the Cyprian corps before the *lobby fire.
1803. Sporting Mag., XXI. 145. The fashionable accoutrements of a *Lobby-Lounger.
1807. trans. Goede’s Trav., II. 205. Lobby-loungers [at a theatre] make their appearance at 8, 9, and even 10 o’clock.
1894. Westm. Gaz., 9 May, 1/2. *Lobby-lounging is substituted for fighting in the House.
1848. Craig, *Lobby Member.
1860. Worcester (citing Greeley), Lobby-member, one who frequents the lobbies of a house of legislation in order to influence the action of the members.
1650. W. Saunderson, Aul. Coquin., 10. [He] put the King in a *Lobby Room, next the Chamber.
1842. J. Aiton, Domest. Econ. (1857), 76. Every manse should be kept dry and warm by the help of a *lobby stove.
1843. Mrs. Carlyle, Lett., I. 190. She clanked it on the *lobby-table.
1876. T. Hardy, Ethelberta (1890), 314. Her sister Picotee, who came in at the north door, closed the *lobby-wicket softly, and went lightly forward to the choir.
