1720. Ramsay, The Scribbler’s Lashed, p. 8. If Nellie’s hoop be
twice as wide As her two pretty limbs can stride.
1857. Rev. A. C. Geikie, Canadian Journal, Sept. If we know
anything of English conversation or letters, we speedily find out,
even if stone blind, that British men and women have arms and legs,
But in Canada ... he would learn that both sexes have limbs of some
sort ... but he could not tell whether their limbs were used to
stand on or hold by.
1858. Pittsburg Chronicle, June. The poor brute [a horse] fell ...
fracturing his limb.
1861. O. W. Holmes, Elsie Venner, vii. ‘A bit of the wing, Rovy, or
of—the under limb?’ The first laugh broke out at this.
1867. Upham, Witchcraft, ii. 248. One of her lower limbs was
fractured in the attempt to rescue her from the prison walls.
1870. R. G. White, Words & their Uses, s.v. Limb for leg. Perhaps
these persons think that it is indelicate for women to have legs.
1872. De Vere, Americanisms. Limb, instead of leg, one of the
ludicrous evidences of the false prudishness prevailing in certain
classes of American society.