leg v.1
1. to run.
 | implied in leg it | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Jorrocks Jaunts (1874) 52: He was seen legging it away clean out of shot. | |
| Clicking of Cuthbert 28: Leg out of the neighbourhood. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | ‘Snatch Bait’ in Ten Detective Aces Oct. 🌐 Then the ‘blind’ man legged for the alley with Brunt’s wild, hot lead singing music about his head. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 144: leg To walk. | |
| ‘Johnny Slice’s Stoolie’ in Deadly Streets (1983) 86: I legged up that fire escape. | |
| Powder 71: It gave them a few hours every day to leg down to Clerkenwell. | |
| Tuff 47: A boy who had just finished legging out a triple used the last of his breath to gloat in front of the third baseman. | |
| ‘Kennington Where It Started’ 🎵 Now look at your wounds you stressing / Say what to your friend, he legging. |
2. in (UK Und.) uses [the irons on a felon’s leg].
(a) to be transported.
| Discoveries (1774) 42: I am to be legg’d; I am to be transported. |
(b) to arrest.
| Sporting Mag. Nov. XIX 88/1: It is wonderful you was not leg’d! A man was taken up there a little while ago, who is now in Chester gaol. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Argus (Melbourne) 6 Jan. 6/3: ‘Modern Fast Conversation’ [...] [A] ‘Bobby’ nearly ‘legged him off to the “stone jug”,’ thereby meaning a policeman was on the point of locking him up. |
(c) (UK und,/gambling) to cheat.
| ‘Epistle from Joe Muggins’s Dog’ in Era (London) 7 Mar.3/2: [T]hey want to Ieg all the greens of their own party themselves, and not leave a nibble for the boys at the corner. |
(d) to be sentenced to prison; thus legging n., a jail sentence.
| ‘Six Years in the Prisons of England’ in Temple Bar Mag. Nov. 536: There’s old Dick over in that bed there; he used to go ‘mumping,’ and when he got boosey with too much lush he stole some paltry thing or other, and being so often convicted they have ‘legged’ him at last. | |
| ‘Six Years in the Prisons of England’ in Temple Bar Mag. Feb. 383: I have done two ‘leggings,’ and this is my third, besides short bits in the county jails. |
3. to run errands.
| Lexington Observer 30 Nov. 3/5: There are a number of men here ‘legging’ for the Colonel. | |
| Weekly New Mexican 20 July 1/4: Bob Mitchell and Jim Carleton have not helped Clever much in the ‘diggings,’ by legging for him [DAE]. | |
| Stock Grower and Farmer 22 Mar. 3/2: The way things start off it looks as though the Colorado Sanitary board intended to ‘leg’ for the Denver yards again this year [DAE]. | |
| Abner Daniel 74: Durin’ election [...] he was leggin’ fer a friend o’ his’n [DAE]. |
4. to trip someone up by seizing their leg.
| DSUE (1984) 674: from ca. 1880. |
5. (US Und.) to shoplift by hiding goods between the legs.
| in In the Life (1972) 99: Stuff I legged (boosted by hiding it between her legs under her skirt). |
6. to set a bomb.
| Family Arsenal 74: You could blow up this bitch beautyful if you legged it right. |
7. (orig. US black) to have sexual intercourse [note get one’s leg over under leg n.].
| Memphis-Nam-Sweden 164: No sooner was he out of the door than Joe was in the sack legging his broad. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Filth 280: Does this shite mean that Toal’s fuckin legged Drummond? |
8. to chase, i.e. to make someone run (away).
| Scully 21: The driver did his nut and the conductor jumped out and started legging us down the road. | |
| Awaydays 81: Got legged all round town by about ten thousand of the twats. | |
| Outlaws (ms.) 82: The ICF tried to come round the Kop and got legged down Oakfield Road. |
In derivatives
chained, in irons; thus imprisoned.
| Dict. of the Flash or Cant Lang. 163/2: Legged – in irons. | |
| Vocabulum. | |
| , , | | Sl. Dict. |
| Jottings from Jail 23: Take my tip and turn square, from a hook who is going to be legged. | |
| Aus. Sl. Dict. 44: Legged, ironed. | |
| Family Arsenal 86: ‘A ten-pounder,’ said Murf. ‘Legged to a clock.’. |
In phrases
(UK tramp) a jail sentence of ten years.
| Secrets of Tramp Life Revealed 8: Legged for Groat ... Ten Years Imprisonment. |
(Aus. Und.) to become involved in, to take a share.
| Dict. of Aus. Words And Terms 🌐 LEG IN—To get a start. | |
| Neddy (1998) 229: He kept on trying and eventually met two guys, legged into a few earns and kicked on – it took him two years, though. |
1. to run away, to walk.
| Spirits and Divels 3: Let vs legge it a little [OED]. | |
| Clockmaker I 207: He was a leggin it off hot foot. | |
| New Purchase I 268: The more I hollers, the more he legs it. | |
| Trappers of Umbagog 68: I legged it for the spot, and got to my stand just as he treed you. | |
| , | | Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. |
| Derry Jrnl 23 Oct. 4/3: There’s more of the same stock there, only waiting for somebody to say ‘Leg it!’. | |
| Ashtabula Teleg. (OH) 24 Nov. 1/6: My jints were a blamed sight more supple them days, and the way I legged it wasn’t slow. | |
| By Celia’s Arbour III 194: Take my advice and leg it. | |
| Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 5: Leg It - To run off. | |
| Dly Morn. Astorian (OR) 24 Sept. 2/2: Chase the ball: aye, leg it until your ungodly heels beat a tattoo on your coat tails. | |
| Sheffield Gloss. 132: Leg, to walk. ‘He legged it’. | |
| Mysterious Beggar 255: I had a ‘Satan’s own’, legging it after that spying sham. | |
| Coburg Leader (Vic.) 17 Aug. 1/5: Wonder why Ann L. did not Leg-ett to Ballarat. | |
| Boy’s Own Paper 20 Oct. 38: Instead of taking him straight up to College, we’d make him leg it all round by the Cattle Market. | |
| Confessions of a Detective 206: When I hears these sneaks scrambling at the fence to get away, I thought some bull had made us; and with that I legs it, too. | |
| Funny Wonder 5 Feb. 1: I will leg it off unto my specialist! | |
| Film Fun 24 Apr. 1: Merrily laughed Ben and Charlie as they legged it off out of the station. | |
| (con. 1910s) Young Lonigan in Studs Lonigan (1936) 95: He ran, and the dog legged it with him. | |
| Nine Tailors (1984) 252: There was another ladder, and I legged it up that as high as I could go. | |
| Mildred Pierce (1985) 511: He said OK, and went legging it home to change his clothes. | |
| Mating Season 138: She [...] legged it round the side of the house. | |
| Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit 90: When the gong went I had to leg it. | |
| Jeeves in the Offing 46: She legged it, and for a moment silence reigned. | |
| Yarns of Billy Borker 51: He rolls up his swag and legs it up the opposite bank and down to the railway station. | |
| Sir, You Bastard 30: Try legging it, I’ll put you out. | |
| Train to Hell 57: Leg it for the train, lads! | |
| G’DAY 9: They have to leg it home and they don't get in till sparrowfart. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Snapper 57: The lounge boy legged it. | |
| Mud Crab Boogie (2013) [ebook] Let’s leg it for the restaurant. | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 106/2: leg it v. to escape from prison or from police custody. | |
| Stump 48: Not just give the cunt a kickin then lerrim leg it straight down to Lime Street. | |
| Hood Rat 129: Pilgrim is legging it down the street. | |
| ‘The Break’ in Crime Factory: Hard Labour [ebook] I should have just let him leg it, I guess. | |
| Tales of the Honey Badger [ebook] I legged it into the local Woolies. | |
| Joe Country [ebook] The kid, meanwhile, had legged it. | |
| Secret Hours 7: Legging it through the dark was the best he came up with. |
2. to wander, to travel.
| Gentleman of Leisure Ch. ix: It beats me [...] What do you want to leg it about the world like that for? What’s the trouble? |
3. to leave, other than on foot.
| Gutted 7: The yobs had legged it in the Corrado. |