leg
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: Appendix:Variations of "leg"
Etymology 1
From Middle English leg, legge, from Old Norse leggr (“leg, calf, bone of the arm or leg, hollow tube, stalk”), from Proto-Germanic *lagjaz, *lagwijaz (“leg, thigh”) (see it for more).
Cognate with Scots leg (“leg”), Icelandic leggur (“leg, limb”), Norwegian Bokmål legg (“leg”), Norwegian Nynorsk legg (“leg”), Swedish lägg (“leg, shank, shaft”), Danish læg (“leg”), Lombardic lagi (“thigh, shank, leg”), Latin lacertus (“limb, arm”), Persian لنگ (leng). Upon borrowing, mostly displaced the native Old English term sċanca (Modern English shank).
| Picture dictionary | |
|---|---|
|
Pronunciation
Noun
leg (plural legs)
- A limb or appendage that an animal uses for support or locomotion on land.
- Insects have six legs.
- In humans, the lower limb extending from the groin to the ankle.
- Dan won't be able to come to the party, since he broke his leg last week and is now on crutches.
- (anatomy) The portion of the lower limb of a human that extends from the knee to the ankle.
- A part of garment, such as a pair of trousers/pants, that covers a leg.
- The left leg of these jeans has a tear.
- A rod-like protrusion from an inanimate object, such as a piece of furniture, supporting it from underneath.
- the legs of a chair or table
- (figurative) Something that supports.
- This observation is an important leg of my argument.
- A stage of a journey, race etc.
- After six days, we're finally in the last leg of our cross-country trip.
- (nautical) A distance that a sailing vessel does without changing the sails from one side to the other.
- (nautical) One side of a multiple-sided (often triangular) course in a sailing race.
- (sports) A single game or match played in a tournament or other sporting contest.
- (geometry) One of the two sides of a right triangle that is not the hypotenuse.
- (geometry) One of the two equal sides of an isosceles triangle.
- (geometry) One of the branches of a hyperbola or other curve which extend outward indefinitely.
- (usually in the plural) The ability of something to persist or succeed over a long period of time.
- This proposal has no legs. Almost everyone opposes it.
- (UK, slang, archaic) A disreputable sporting character; a blackleg.
- An extension of a steam boiler downward, in the form of a narrow space between vertical plates, sometimes nearly surrounding the furnace and ash pit, and serving to support the boiler; called also water leg.
- In a grain elevator, the case containing the lower part of the belt which carries the buckets.
- (cricket, attributive) Denotes the half of the field on the same side as the batsman's legs; the left side for a right-handed batsman.
- (telephony) A branch or lateral circuit connecting an instrument with the main line.
- (electrical) A branch circuit; one phase of a polyphase system.
- (finance) An underlying instrument of a derivatives strategy.
- (US, slang, military) An army soldier assigned to a paratrooper unit who has not yet been qualified as a paratrooper.
- 2019, Elliot Murphy, A Vietnam Story, page 94:
- Which was lower than whale shit in the eyes of any paratrooper; it would have been a disgrace to be a leg.
- (archaic) A gesture of submission; a bow or curtsey. Chiefly in phrase make a leg.
- 1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter LXXIV”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; […], →OCLC:
- Hickman came in, making his legs, and stroking his cravat and ruffles.
- (journalism) A column, as a unit of length of text as laid out.
- 2015, Homer L. Hall, Megan Fromm, Aaron Manfull, Student Journalism & Media Literacy, page 266:
- A leg is one column of a story. It has two legs if it is set in two columns and three legs if it is set in three columns. Avoid legs longer than 10 inches and shorter than 1 inch.
- Synonym of leg up (“forming a step for a person's feet with one's hands”)
- 1902, The Idler: An Illustrated Monthly Magazine, volume 21, page 737:
- The street was deserted. We acted quickly. Josiah gave me a leg. I threw my jacket over the broken glass […]
- (gambling) An individual bet in a parlay (a series of bets where the stake and winnings are cumulatively carried forward).
- 2020, Swain Scheps, Sports Betting For Dummies, Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., →ISBN, page 265:
- If one leg from your 2-way parlay pushes and the other wins, your parlay bet wins and is paid off as if it's a straight bet (paying -110 or whatever the odds were).
Alternative forms
- legge (obsolete)
Synonyms
Derived terms
- airleg
- a leg to stand on
- an arm and a leg
- base leg
- bootleg
- bowleg
- boyleg
- break a leg
- Cabriole leg
- change the leg
- chicken leg
- Cochin leg
- crooked as a dog's hind leg
- deadleg
- dead leg
- dead-leg
- deep square leg
- dog-leg
- dogleg
- elephant leg
- factory leg
- fine leg
- first leg
- foreleg
- gateleg
- get a leg up
- get one's leg over
- good leg
- hang a leg
- have a bone in one's leg
- highleg
- hind leg
- hogleg
- hog leg
- hog's leg
- hollow leg
- inside leg
- interleg
- jake leg
- leg art
- leg bail
- Legbar
- legbeard
- leg before
- leg before wicket
- leg biter
- legbone
- leg break
- leg-breaker
- leg breaker
- leg bridge
- leg business
- leg bye
- legcuff
- leg curl
- leg cutter
- leg day
- leg drop
- leg extension
- legful
- leggie
- leggish
- leg glance
- leggy
- legharness
- leghold
- leghole
- leg iron
- leg irons
- leg it
- legless
- leglet
- leglike
- leg lock
- leglock
- leg man
- legman
- leg-of-mutton fist
- leg-of-mutton sleeve
- leg-o'-mutton sleeve
- leg-over
- legplate
- leg press
- leg-pull
- leg-puller
- legpuller
- leg-pulling
- legroom
- leg rope
- legs all the way to one's neck
- legs eleven
- legshow
- leg show
- leg side
- legside
- legsie
- leg slip
- legspan
- leg spin
- leg-spinner
- leg spinner
- leg stump
- leg sweep
- leg theory
- leg up
- leg-up
- leg up on
- leg-warmer
- leg warmer
- legwear
- leg-work
- legwork
- leg work
- make a leg
- mare's leg
- marine leg
- mesoleg
- metaleg
- middle leg
- midleg
- milk leg
- multileg
- not have a leg to stand on
- on leg
- peg-leg
- peg leg
- piss on someone's leg and tell them it's raining
- proleg
- propleg
- puff-leg
- puffleg
- pull someone's leg
- pull the other leg
- put one's pants on one leg at a time
- put one's trousers on one leg at a time
- put on one's pants one leg at a time
- put on one's trousers one leg at a time
- redleg
- red-leg
- restless leg syndrome
- roughleg
- saber leg
- sabre leg
- scimitar leg
- second leg
- shake a leg
- short leg
- show a bit of leg
- show a leg
- splayleg
- square leg
- square leg umpire
- stanky leg
- stretch one's legs
- talk the hind leg off a donkey
- talk the leg off the Lamb of God
- tangle-leg
- third leg
- trouser leg
- underleg
- white leg
- wooden leg
Descendants
Translations
See also
Verb
leg (third-person singular simple present legs, present participle legging, simple past and past participle legged)
- To remove the legs from an animal carcass.
- To build legs onto a platform or stage for support.
- To put a series of three or more options strikes into the stock market.
- To apply force using the leg (as in 'to leg a horse').
Derived terms
References
- “leg”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
Etymology 2
Noun
leg (plural not attested)
- Alternative spelling of leg.
Adjective
leg (not comparable)
- Alternative spelling of leg.
Further reading
leg on Wikipedia.Wikipedia - human leg on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
- “leg”, in Collins English Dictionary.
- “leg”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
- “leg”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
- “leg”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
Anagrams
Wikiwand in your browser!
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.
