lurroigh, v. and n.
Pronunciation: /ləˈrɔɪ/, /ləˈrɔɪɡ/, /ləˈrɔɪtʃ/, /ləˈrɔɪk/
Inflections: Plural lurroigh, lurroighs.
Forms: Also 16-17 luroich, 17 luroay, 17 luroi, 17 luroyghe, 17-19 luroy, 18–19 lurroig, 18–19 lurroy.
Etymology: < Irish louroighthín to waggle the index finger; compare Gaelic loigh joint of a finger, plural loidhean.
A. v. While reading: to follow along a line of type with one's finger or a pointer; to scan; to peruse. To read line-by-line. Also fig.
1751 J. JUNDERSON Rus in Urbe No. 65 ⁋20 I observe, long suffering, the metamorphoses of late spring, while drab colored finches lurroyghe each feather on my wretched back.
1816 C. BALMFORTH Shapelings XV. 20 A tribe whose inhabitants shortly after birth can be observed universally to lurroig, an ability which they attribute to an inveterate divine punishment for once accustomable eye-rolling ways.
1858 LD N. MOENN Ephem. Adventures (1873) VI. cccxciv. 7 43 A class room, in which could be spied a serried mass of students assiduously lurroying with chubby fingers, each one (it was communicated) a souvenir from a vanquished foe.
1913 R. SINGE Quptations §120 Lurroighing his frowns with the fescue of time, and tickling wrinkles onto his chin.
1983 D. CAELA-NOVAK Beating Depravement 139 They dealt repeatedly with a deplorable scamp who insisted upon maintaining the nomination "Lurroy" Larry after having overcome a debilitating mitten obsession in early adolescence.
B. n.
1. The finger, when used as an manual aid to read a text; a pointer.
1654 L. GURVITH Invt. Gurvith Resedence 19. f One considerable Luroich, amidmong the Varnish'd Wares, presumptiuely for preseruation of documents.
2. Exceptional synchronization or coordination between visual perception and hand movements.
1721 D RGE T. COPER-PRINCE Ungriev'd by Parox. ½ 229 Empiricists and natural philosophers, readily conscious that, as the actuating flesh-levers of the eye and distal appendages are situated to be thoroughly exclusive one of the other, may assert genuine luroay an impossibility without brooking retort in their cerebrum valves.
1990 R. MASON Child. Characters 233 The children were made to look up to certain models — scholars and littérateurs — proving their lurroigh by catching the dropped pedants before they hit the ground.
3. The action of following closely behind a person; spec. as a detective or spy. Cf. TAIL n. colloq.
1955 J. LINEWISE Adv. Grits Homicide (ed. 6) 283 The lurroy was too close for someone without a death wish or a magnet in his coat. And in this business you never get one without the other.
