subs. (thieves’).—1. See quot. 1838. Also, a LAG (q.v.) for life. Fr. un fagot à perte de vue; un bonnet vert à perpète.
1838. DICKENS, Oliver Twist, xliii. ‘If they don’t get any fresh evidence, it’ll only be a summary conviction, and we shall have him back again after six weeks or so; but, if they do, it’s a case of lagging. They know what a clever lad he is; he’ll be a LIFER. They’ll make the Artful nothing less than a LIFER.’ ‘What do yer mean by lagging and a LIFER?’ demanded Mr. Bolter…. Being interpreted, Mr. Bolter would have been informed that they represented that combination of words, ‘transportation for life.’
1885. Encyclopædia Britannica, xix. 756. LIFERS cannot claim any remission, but their cases are brought forward at the end of twenty years.
1892. HUME NISBET, The Bushranger’s Sweetheart, p. 266. ‘He has money enough, I am sure, raking in the thousands as he does.’ ‘So he has, and so have many old ‘LIFERS.’’
2. (thieves’).—Penal servitude for life.
