General
lills / luppers
What does lills / luppers mean?
Hands. Part of the head-to-toe Polari body lexicon. If you knew the words you could clock someone's mannerisms, jewellery or wandering grip without a single straight person at the bar catching on.
"Vada her lills, covered in rings and not one of them a wedding band."
Origin
Polari, the secret cant of British gay men, drag performers and theatre folk that peaked from the 1930s to the 1960s. 'Lills' meaning hands and 'luppers' meaning fingers sit alongside the body vocabulary that let speakers gossip about anyone in plain sight.
Frequently asked questions
What do lills and luppers mean?
In Polari, 'lills' means hands and 'luppers' means fingers.
How do you use lills and luppers in a sentence?
"Get your luppers off that" tells someone to take their fingers away from it.
What language do lills and luppers come from?
They come from Polari, the secret cant used by gay men and theatre performers in 20th-century Britain.
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