1791. Burns, Tam O’Shanter. Weel mounted on his grey mare, Meg, A
better never lifted leg.
To get a leg in, verb. phr. (common).—To obtain one’s confidence.
1891. N. Gould, Double Event, p. 207. He felt exceedingly
comfortable now they had got a leg in.
A leg (or leg up), subs. phr. (colloquial).—Help.
1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. xvi. Your servant will give you a leg
up.
1871. Figaro, 9 Oct. There are authors who require a leg-up before
starting, and who do well to explain, and argue, and appeal, and
declare beforehand what very clever authors they are.
1876. Hindley, Cheap Jack, 171. All the ... cheap Johnny coves ...
promised to come ... just to give you a leg up.
To have a bone in one’s leg (or arm, or throat), verb. phr.
(colloquial).—To be incapable of action: a playful refusal.
1542. Nicholas Udall, Erasmus’s Apophthegmes (1877, Reprint of Ed.
1562), p. 375. He refused to speake, allegeing that he had a bone
in his throte, and he could not speake.
1738. Swift, Polite Conversation (Conv. iii.). Nev. Miss, come, be
kind for once, and order me a dish of coffee. Miss. Pray go
yourself; let us wear out the oldest first; besides, I can’t go,
for I have a bone in my leg.
1767. Ray, Proverbs [Bohn (1893), 50]. I have a bone in my arm.
This is a pretended excuse, with which people amuse young children
when they are importunate to have them do something, or reach
something for them, that they are unwilling to do, or that is not
good for them.
1830. W. T. Moncrieff, The Heart of London, ii. 1. Got a bone in my
leg felt rather indisposed.
To shake a free (or a loose) leg, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To live as
one likes; to go on tramp.
1834. Ainsworth, Rookwood, iii, ch. 9. While luck lasts the
highwayman shakes a loose leg.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. etc., 1. 453. I longed for a roving life
and to shake a loose leg.
1856. H. Mayhew, Gt. World of London, p. 87. Those who love to
shake a free leg, and lead a roving life, as they term it, rather
than settle down to any continuous employment.
To give (or show) legs (or a clean pair of legs), verb. phr.
(colloquial).—To decamp; to run away.
1883. Daily News, 15 May, p. 7, col. 2. ‘The best way is to make a
snatch and give legs for it; it’s better than loitering.’
1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, p. 30. We bunked off in the scurry,
and showed ’em a clean pair o’ legs.
Not a leg (or a leg to stand on), subs. phr. (colloquial).—At the end
of one’s resources.
In high leg, subs. phr. (colloquial).—In high feather.
On one’s last legs, subs. phr. (colloquial).—On the verge of ruin; at
the end of one’s tether.
1763. Foote, Mayor of Garratt, ii. Mrs. Sneak. Miss Molly Jollup to
be married to Sneak! Sneak. Ay, and glad enough you could catch me:
you know, you was pretty near your last legs.
1767. Ray, Proverbs (3rd ed.), p. 200. He’s on his last legs.
1782. D’Arblay, Cecilia, vii. ch. 5. She can’t possibly last long,
for she’s quite on her last legs.
To be (or get) on one’s legs, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To rise to
speak; to be speaking.
To stand on one’s own legs, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To depend on
oneself.
To set one (or get) on one’s legs, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To restore
or attain to good circumstances.
1888. Century Mag., xxxvii. p. 305. When the paper gets upon its
legs.
To show a leg, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To get out of bed.
To have the legs of one, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To outrun.
1861. Macmillan’s Mag., Mar., p. 357. The beggar had the legs of
me.
To fight at the leg, verb. phr. (old).—See quot.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Leg. To fight at the leg, to take
unfair advantages, it being held unfair by back-sword players to
strike at the leg.
To fall on one’s legs, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To prosper.
1841. Lytton, Night and Morning, iii. 3. A man who has plenty of
brains generally falls on his legs.
1861. James Conway, Forage among Salmon and Deer, p. 155. And this
inborn self-possession tends greatly to the advantage of the people
who are so constituted. Hence it is that a Scotchman put him where
you will, almost invariably falls on his legs.
To have legs, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To be reputed fast (as a ship, a
horse, a runner).
To feel one’s legs, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To be sure of one’s
ground.
1846. Dickens, Cricket on the Hearth, i. Remarkably beautiful
child.... May seem impossible to you, but feels his legs already.
To put one’s best leg foremost, verb. phr. (colloquial).—1. To make
haste; and (2) to exert oneself.
1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe [Grosart (1885), v. 277]. Well, thither
our Fisherman set the best leg before, and vnfardled to the King
his whole sachel of wonders.
As right as my leg, phr. (colloquial).—As right as may be. But see
quot. 1767.
1719. Durfey, Pills to Purge etc., i. 93. Jolly Ralph was in with
Peg, Though frekl’d like a Turkey Egg, And she as right as is my
leg, Shee gave him leave to towze her.
1762. Wilson, The Cheats, ii. 4. Fear nothing. All’s well, and as
right as my leg.
1767. Ray, Proverbs [Bohn (1893), 64]. A whore, she’s as right as
my leg.
To put the boot on the other leg, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To ‘turn the
tables.’
1850. New York Herald, 24 May. The Eternal City is in a very
curious position. The Pope has returned to his ancestral home; but
he has nothing in his pocket, and Rothschild refuses to let him
have any more money. A thousand years ago, and the boot would have
been on t’other leg.
1890. Pall Mall Gaz., 22 Feb., p. 2, col. 2. The Times
correspondent at Durban alludes to a rumour which at the first
blush seems to put the boot quite on the other leg.
To stretch one’s legs, verb. phr. (common).—To take a walk. Hence,
leg-stretcher (q.v.) = a drink.
To make indentures with one’s legs, verb. phr. (old).—To be drunk. For
synonyms see Drinks and Screwed.—Ray (1767).
More belongs to marriage than four bare legs in a bed, phr. (old).—Said
of the engagement or wedding of a portionless couple. Ital. Inanzi il
maritare, abbi l’habitare.—Ray (1670).
Leg-and-leg, adv. phr. (cards’).—The state of the game when each player
has won a ‘leg’ (q.v.); horse-and-horse (q.v.).
Leg-bags, subs. (common).—1. Stockings; and (2) trousers.
Leg-bail (or leg bail and land security), subs. phr. (common).—Escape
from custody. Fr. lever le pied. See Bail.
1767. Ray, Proverbs [Bohn (1893), 55]. He has given him leg-bail;
i.e., decamped.
1774. Ferguson, Poems, ii. 10. They took leg-bail and ran awa’.
1775. Adair, American Indians, 277. I had concluded to use no
chivalry, but give them leg-bail instead of it, by ... making for a
deep swamp.
1816. Scott, Antiquary, ch. xxxix. I wad gie them leg-bail to a
certainty.
1823. Grose, Vulg. Tongue (3rd ed.), s.v. Leg. Leg-bail and land
security, to run away.
1823. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, ii. 4. ’Tis my painful duty to
commit you, unless you can find good bail. Tom. We’ll give you
leg-bail.
1838. Dickens, Oliver Twist, ch. xix. He has us now if he could
give us leg-bail again.
1848. Marryat, Poacher, xxii. Given them leg-bail, I swear.
1870. Wilkie Collins, Man and Wife (in Cassell’s Mag., p. 309).
‘Ow! ow! that’s bad. And the bit husband-creature danglin’ at her
petticoat’s tail one day, and awa’ wi’ the sunrise next
mornin’—have they baith taken leg-bail together?’
Leg-business, subs. (common).—1. See Leg-shop.