Forms: 6 lulley by, 6–7 lullabie, 7 lull-a-ba, lullyby, 8 lullabye. [f. prec. + -by, as in by-by, BYE-BYE1: cf. HUSHABY, ROCKABY.]
1. int. A soothing refrain, used to please or pacify infants. Also gen., any soothing refrain. (Sometimes preceded by lulla.)
c. 1560. Richardes, Misogonus, IV. 1. 76 (Brandl). When my maistrisse lay in and we Sange lulley by baby and bore ye.
1588. Greene, Pandosto (1843), 27. The good wife learned to sing lullaby at home with her yong babe.
1588. Shaks., Tit. A., II. iii. 29. Whiles Hounds and Hornes, and sweet Melodious Birds Be vnto vs as in a Nurses Song Of Lullabie, to bring her Babe asleepe. Ibid. (1590), Mids. N., II. ii. 14–9. Sing in your sweet Lullaby, Lulla, lulla, lullaby, lulla, lulla, lullaby, Neuer harme, nor spell, nor charme, Come our louely Lady nye, So good night with Lullaby.
1651. N. Bacon, Disc. Govt. Eng., II. xl. (1739), 174. King James conquering all enmity, spake Peace abroad, and sang Lullaby at home.
1739. A. Nicol, Poems, 14. Where once, of late the Nurse’s Lull-a-ba Made all the Place delightful to the Eyes Now all ’s dispersed.
a. 1764. Lloyd, Ode to Obliv., Poet. Wks. 1774, I. 128. And, hollow blasts, which never cease to sigh, Hum to each care-struck mind their lulla-lulla-by!
1807–8. W. Irving, Salmag. (1824), 217. She with ‘lulla-by-baby’ beguiles it [a child] to rest.
a. 1845. Hood, Serenade, i. Lullaby, oh, lullaby! The brat will never shut an eye.
† b. Used for ‘farewell,’ ‘good-night.’ Obs.
1599. Pass. Pilgr., xv. Then lullaby the learned man hath got the lady gay, For now my song is ended.
1601. Shaks., Twel. N., V. i. 48. Marry sir, lullaby to your bountie till I come agen.
2. sb. A song sung to children to soothe them to rest. Also, any song which soothes to rest.
1588. Greene, Pandosto (1607), 12. Alas sweet vnfortunate babe … shalt thou haue the whistling windes for thy Lullaby.
1779. Burney, in Phil. Trans., LX. 206. In Italy the ninne nonne, or lullabies, are fragments of elegant melodies.
1842. Lytton, Zanoni, 24. You thought you heard the lullaby which a fairy might sing to some fretful changeling.
1900. Contemp. Rev., Aug., 247. The feeling of quietness evoked by an evening landscape or by a lullaby.
b. transf. and fig.
1611. Rich, Honesty Age (Percy Soc.), 10. Hee that would please the time must learne to sing lullaby to Folly, and there is no musicke so delightfull as the smoothing vp of sinne.
1622. T. Scott, Belg. Pismire, 11. Rockt asleepe in desperate securitie, with a lullabie of peace and safety, hee derides all happie admonition.
1679. Vind. Sir T. Player, 2/2. The rest of his Sheet consists of Wheadle and Lullabies.
1796. Burke, Regic. Peace, i. Wks. VIII. 196. Would not this warm language of high indignation have more of sound reason in it … than all the lullabies of flatterers?
1819. S. Rogers, Human Life, 2. The bees have hummed their noontide lullaby.
3. attrib. and Comb., as lullaby-song, -sound, -speech, -strain; lullaby-cheat Cant, a baby.
1671. R. Head, Eng. Rogue, I. iv. (1680), 35. His Doxie … carried at her back a Lullaby-cheat.
1687. Miége, Fr. Dict., II. Lullaby, a Lullaby-Song.
1795. Mason, Ch. Mus., i. 63. That these lullaby strains should be exclusively adhered to.
1822–34. Good’s Study Med. (ed. 4), I. 437. The Greeks, from the letter λ (lambda), denominated this lambdacismus; the Romans with more severity, lallatio, or lullaby-speech.
a. 1849. Poe, Annie, Poems (1859), 118. Water that flows With a lullaby sound.
a. 1849. H. Coleridge, Ess. (1851), II. 158. Still-life lullaby poetry.
