lion
It depended who was saying this, as to what it would mean.
As in “a lion of the ton” - something someone in society might say:
A person of outstanding interest or importance
–Definition from Merriam-Webster
Used in cant - something a person on the street might say:
To tip the lion; to squeeze the nose of the party tipped, flat to his face with the thumb. To shew the lions and tombs; to point out the particular curiosities of any place, to act the ciceroni: an allusion to Westminster Abbey, and the Tower, where the tombs and lions are shown. A lion is also a name given by the gownsmen of Oxford to an inhabitant or visitor. It is a standing joke among the city wits to send boys and country folks, on the first of April, to the Tower-ditch, to see the lions washed.
–Definition from the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.
