LIG

intransitive verb (Lifestyle and Leisure) (Youth Culture) In media and youth slang: to sponge or freeload; to gatecrash parties. Etymology: Lig was originally a dialect word corresponding to standard English lie, mainly in Scottish, Northern Irish, and Northern English dialects. It entered standard English in the early sixties in the general sense 'to idle or lie about' and was then adopted by media people in the more specialized meaning given above. History and Usage: This is a usage which arose in the late seventies, especially among journalists and entertainers, whose lifestyle involves accepting free hospitality of one kind and another. The word was popularized by media people themselves during the mid eighties. The corresponding action noun is ligging; the word for a freeloader is ligger. [I] suddenly twigged what ligging was all about when I got my first job as a researcher on Aquarius. I found...I could get free tickets for everything, everywhere. Radio Times 6 Apr. 1985, p. 16 A penniless young man who begins in Trafalgar Square with nothing but a pair of underpants and ligs his way onward and upward with clean-cut charm. The Times 9 Apr. 1985, p. 8 Once the last lingering ligger has been escorted out, Dylan and his three piece band...shamble through on to the dimly lit stage. Q Dec. 1989, p. 64