Green’s Dictionary of Slang

pertaining to the display of the female leg, i.e. in show business.

1898

Reynolds’s Newspaper 26 June 2/6: The Fandango being one of those theatres where ‘leggy’ pieces prevail.

actual views or pictures (and films) of women revealing their legs.

1922		Eve. News (Harrisburg, PA) 29 Aug. 14/3: Mack Sennett, who made enough money producing leg pictures to stop making them when silly censors began to proclaim that a leg in motion pictures was [...] insidious.
1931		Akron Beacon Jrnl (OH) 24 Aug. 4/3: Once there was a news editor who said, ‘We’ll ditch that page one leg art and sub this photo of the new Hoover commission’.
1938		Life 29 Aug. 38: ‘Leg art’ is the technical name for this kind of publicity picture, showing Marie in a bathing suit atop a studio prop.
1938		W. Winchell On Broadway 21 Mar. [synd. col.] No movie actress is ordered to report for ‘leg pictures’ . . . Her dignity wouldn’t permit it.
1940		R. Chandler Farewell, My Lovely (1949) 79: I might miss a few unimportant jobs. And a lot of leg art.
1944		E. Wilson 4 Feb. [synd. col.] She’s the first Miss America who’s had the good sense to say no to all the demand for leg pictures.
1945		Life 26 Nov. 142: Against the classic leg art backgrounds, models posed nylon-clad legs for press photographers.
1981		Lacey & Morgan [bk title] Leg art: celebrating a century of love and devotion to the photogenic wonders of the prettiest girls with the prettiest legs in the most glamorous profession of ’em all, show business.
1996		G. & W. Brame Different Loving 366: Elmer Batters, who originated a lot of the 1950s leg-art magazines, is in his 70s, and he has spent all of his life exploring foot and leg fetishism.

1. sexual intercourse.

1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1938		‘Justinian’ Americana Sexualis 28: Leg business, n. Sexual intercourse [...] C.19–20, obsolescent in U.S.

2. (US) the ballet.

1871

A.E. Edwards Ought We to Visit Her III 11: She was, says Adonis, glancing out from the corners of his cynical old eyes, in the Leg Business, your Grace.

3. (US) any form of entertainment where the focus is on the women’s legs.

1867		Sportsman 15 Jan. 2/1: Notes on News [...] [T]he entertainment of course pays, as do tho stupidest burlesques here, if helped out by plenty of ‘leg’ business.
1869		O. Logan Apropos of Women & Theatres 126: What the Tribune calls the Dirty Drama, the World the Nude Drama, the Times the Leg Drama [...] I call the Leg Business.
1870		O. Logan Before the footlights and behind the scenes 583: The ‘leg business’ [...] means the displaying in public, by women, of their persons , clad in close-fitting flesh-colored silk ‘tights’, and as little else as the law will permit.
1872		J.D. McCabe Lights and Shadows of N.Y. Life 153: They patronize the drama liberally, but their preference is for what Olive Logan calls the ‘leg business’.

any form of show, whether a musical or full-scale striptease, in which the focus is on a woman’s legs.

1865		Dly Union Vedette (Camp Douglas, UT) 2 Dec. 2/3: The leg drama [...] refires the sexegenarian heart and make[s] opera glasses rise to the highest premiums.
1872		Chicago Trib. 8 Dec. n.p.: The history of the leg-drama, so well known under the title of The Black Crook [DA].
1886		A.T. Andreas Hist. Chicago III 662/2: Whether a similarly tolerant view ought to be taken of the ‘leg drama’ [...] is not so clear.
1895		Papers of National Purity Congress 344: But the atmosphere of the theatre is by no means the most conducive to youthful morality, and most pernicious are the exhibitions known as the ‘leg’ drama.
1914		T. Floyd-Jones Backward Glances 61: The precursors of the leg drama, which was tame in comparison with the scantly clad drama of the present day, Buckley’s Serenaders, opened a new theatre at 587 Broadway in 1856.

(US gay) a lesbian.

1999

Gaymart.com Queer Sl. in the Gay 90s 🌐 Leg Licker – A term used to denote a lesbian.

a promiscuous man, a womanizer; thus leg-lifting, casual sexual intercourse.

1937–84

Partridge DSUE (1984) 674/2: Leg-lifter. A male fornicator: low C.18–early 20. So leg-lifting, fornication.

see separate entry.

see leg art

1. any form of stage performance featuring the female leg, e.g. a burlesque show.

1843–44		Dickens Martin Chuzzlewit (1995) 454: What are legs? Human nature. Then let us have plenty of leg pieces, Pip, and I’ll stand by you, my buck!
1843		Brother Jonathan 23 Sept. 107/1: Diana's Revenge has been repeated every night-—not for any intrinsic merit it possesses certainly—but it is a leg piece.
1885		Illus. Sporting & Dramatic News 11 Apr. 6/3: [I]t is as a leg-piece [...] that the burletta is expected to succeed [...] When a short-skirted female danced a kind of breakdown some applause was elicited, but the attempts at vocalisation wei'e borne in solemn silence.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 14 Mar. 22/1: Manning commenced to read it with a grave face, and, without relaxing a muscle, waded page by page through a mass of puns and comic ballads of the ‘Cinderella’ order, which have since been worked up in many a ‘leg-piece’ for Nelly Favien at the Gaiety Theatre. Then he [...] said: ‘Mr. Burnard, I do not advise you to send this to your father.’.
1885		E.C. Murray Side-lights on English society 399: He loves a leg-piece, and he delights in a well-acted Shakespearian tragedy.
1896		B. Wendell Rankell’s Remains 228: ‘Have you been to the Occidental Theatre?’ ‘No,’ I said. ‘Shady kind of place. They’re doing a leg- piece’.

2. the ballet.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 674/2: 1880.

a dancer; a dance.

1837		Times-Picayune (N.O.) 4 July 2/3: These distinguished dancers are ‘getting it’ right and left [...] The Philadelphia Ledger calls both of them ‘leg-shakers’.
1929		E. Dahlberg Bottom Dogs 282: Then to put the legshakers in a sentimental mood, Mr. Solomon whispered to the leader to play a score from the lite opera ‘Madame Sherry’.
1954		Hepster’s Dict. 6: Leg shaker – A dance.

(US) a theatre devoted to burlesque, i.e. the display of women’s legs.

1869		Carlisle Wkly Herald (PA) 23 July 2/6: [William] Niblo, the proprietor of the popular leg shop [i.e. Niblo’s Garden in NYC], has gone to Europe.
1872		‘Mark Twain’ Screamers (1875) 144: They’re playing ‘Undine’ at the Opery House, and some folks call it the leg-shop.

(orig. US) any form of show, whether a musical or full-scale striptease, in which the focus is on a woman’s legs; also attrib.

1868		Plymouth Democrat (IN) 8 Oct. 1/5: She did not depend upon [...] nudity for her effects, but upon gestures, glances, and other artifices more diabolically suggestive than any mere leg show.
1871		Cambridge City Trib. 16 Nov. 3/3: It is dishonest [...] to cheat the few who paid for fifty cents worth of leg show out of one half of it. We make no complaints however. We saw as much of Miss Weber as any man with due regard for the seventh commandment could desire.
1879		London Life 9 Aug. 5/1: [T]he usual boisterous fun and merriment, such as [...] rolling down the hills, showing the well-formed limbs of some of the fair damsels. After the leg show [etc].
1880		Newton Kansan (KS) 8 Apr. 3/3: If some of these reputed modest ones had kept their husbands and sons away from that can-can leg show at the Opera House [etc].
1886		Lantern (N.O.) 20 Oct. 4: The Amazonian Guards in their minuet drill called forth loud applause, but as leg-shows usually do, it speaks but little for the drill.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 15 Apr. 1/7: [He] went to Harry Rickard’s leg-show and attempted to describe it.
1894		Mirror of Life 3 Mar. 2/4: [S]ome snap show manager, ever, will organise a combination of the ‘leg show’ order.
1895		N.Y. Dramatic News 7 Dec. 3/3: The entertainment was a sort of Zozo leg show, cut on a smaller pattern and called Zero [DA].
1901		Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Sept. 32/1: Now this is a song for the Bald Brigade / That carries a gold-knobbed stick, / And gathers at halls of the leg-show grade / Where Totties spring forth and kick.
1925		O.O. McIntyre New York Day by Day 9 Aug. [synd. col.] Now they advertise musical reviews as ‘Leg Shows’ in box car type.
1930		(con. 1900s–10s) Dos Passos 42nd Parallel in USA (1966) 337: Doc wanted to see a legshow and asked the barkeep.
1939		P. Cheyney Don’t Get Me Wrong (1956) 89: I am also very inclined to get steamed up with people who get me out of a swell leg show.
1947		B. Schulberg Harder They Fall (1971) 28: A young matron who would look more at home in a Junior League musical than in a Broadway leg-show.
2001		N. Tosches Where Dead Voices Gather (ms.) 319: Casey said that it was in Charlotte that he first saw Miller perform, as part of a vaudeville program, which Casey described as esentially a ‘leg show’.

see throw a/one’s leg over

of a man, to seduce, to have sexual intercourse.

1974		K. Roberts Boat of Fate 115: Mostly his talk was of women; those he had laid, those he had yet, as he put it, to get his leg across.
1975		J. Pidgeon Flame 21: Still quite a one for the birds is our Jack. He’ll be getting his leg over in the pension queue.
1989		G. Tremlett Little Legs 52: He never, ever, got his leg over.
1993		I. Welsh Trainspotting 74: It’s obvious though, that he’s no gittin his leg over.
2000		N. Griffiths Grits 471: Christ, I hadn’t ad me leg ova faw awlmowst two years.
2001		K. Waterhouse Soho 75: You’re not gunner believe this, but do you know who I got my leg across with down in London?
2002		J. Moore Fourplay 265: She had to acknowledge she was just another mistress to just another married man who got his leg over someone else.
2012		R. Milward Kimberly’s Capital Punishment (2023) 215: Occasionally letting them get their legs over.

(US black) usu. of a man, to have sexual intercourse.

1966		H.S. Thompson Hell’s Angels (1967) 26: Those broads didn’t come out there for a singsong [...] They were loaded and they wanted to get off some leg.
1970		G. Scott-Heron Vulture (1996) 17: This was a guarantee that everybody would get some leg.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 142: In fact, expressions like to get some leg/big leg and soft leg [...] generalize from the desirability of a woman’s legs to her whole body.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 146: Jody’s gonna get him some leg.

to have sexual intercourse.

1600		J. Day Blind Beggar of Bednall-Green Act IV: The Blind-Beggar of Bednall-Green has the prettiest Mother to his Daughter as a man need to lay his leg over.
1669		New Academy in Bold (1979) 33: Bonny Kate, kenny Kate, lay thy leg o’er me.
1682		‘Satire to Julian’ in Wilson Court Satires of the Restoration (1976) 88: For bugg’ring of a rotten door, / I’d rather famed be, / Than lay leg o’er that painted whore.
1706		[T. Betterton] Amorous Widow 25: His Wife’s a main pretty smirking Rogue, as a Man wou’d wish to lay his Leg over.
1719		in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy V 44: No sneaking Rebel shall lift a leg o’er me.
1732		Delightful Adventures of Honest John Cole 19: Lay thy leg over and black ’em all.
c.1787		Burns Holy Willie’s Prayer n.p.: I’ll ne’er lift a lawless leg Again upon her [F&H].
1797		Bridges Burlesque Homer (4th edn) I 163: What wench [...] / Will let thee lay a leg upon her?
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

of either sex, to have sexual intercourse.

1788		Burns ‘Duncan Davidson’ Merry Muses of Caledonia (1965) 144: There was a lass, they ca’d her Meg, ...] She fee’d a lad to lift her leg, / They ca’d him Duncan Davidson.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1905		Sun. Times (Perth) 1 Jan. 1/1: The Rev. A.G. Curtis is returning to ther scene of his concupiscient cuddles [...] the pious pervert will lift the leg ashore from R.M.S. Victoria.

of a woman, to show one’s legs.

1923

J. Manchon Le Slang.

to have sexual intercourse.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 681/1: c.18–early 20.

of a man, to seduce, to have sexual intercourse.

1775		‘Miss Fraser’ Ranger’s Impartial List of the Ladies of Pleasure in Edinburgh n.p.: This is as pretty a little filly as ever man clapped leg over.
c.1780		‘The Rover’ in Holloway & Black (1975) I 236: He instantly jumpt into bed / And immediately threw his leg over.
c.1780		The only True LIST, of those celebrated SPORTING LADIES [broadsheet] Dinah Q-ar-nt-ne [...] isa likely toi turn out as pleasant a Filly, as a man could wish to throw his legs across.
c.1918		‘O’Reilly’ in Bold (1979) 166: I gently laid her on the bed / And quickly cocked my left leg over.
1960		in E. Cray Erotic Muse (1992) 302: If all the young girls were like fish in the ocean, / I’d be a whale and I’d show them the motion / Chorus: / Oh, roll your leg over, oh, roll your leg over.
1960		J. Walker No Sunlight Singing (1966) 196: An’ as far as sheilas goes, you can throw a leg over ’em if they’ll let you.
1964		in E. Cray Erotic Muse (1992) 102: Grabbed that bitch by the tits, / Then I threw my left leg over.
1979		J. Morrow Confessions of Proinsias O’Toole 28: If you’re feeling guilty about throwing a leg over his mot, you needn’t.

see separate entry.

to run away.

1883

Daily News 15 May 7/2: The best way is to make a snatch and give legs for it; it’s better than loitering [F&H].

see separate entry.

(UK black) the female thigh, thus generically, a woman.

1999		(con. 1979–80) A. Wheatle Brixton Rock (2004) 20: I’ve got a pair of legbacks in my room and a few cans of Special Brew. [Ibid.] 75: Brenton, check the legback on that steak over der so.
2001		(con. 1981) A. Wheatle East of Acre Lane 22: Checked a leg-back fe de morning [...] I got my delights so I t’ought, why ’ang around? [Ibid.] 81: She ’ave nice hair an’a fit batty an a serious pair of toned leg-backs.

1. stockings.

1791		‘Flash Lang.’ Confessions of Thomas Mount 18: Stokings, leg-bags.
1807		H. Tufts Autobiog. (1930) 291: Leg bags signifies stockings.
1859		All Year Round 9 July 248/1: I put on a blue Jersey fisherman's shirt, a pair of long, dark, rough, grey leg-bags — I cannot call them stockings.
1867		W. Felkin History of Machine-wrought Hosiery 447: Goods not fashioned on the frame should be by law sold under the title of ‘leg-bags’.

2. trousers.

1843		Illuminated Mag. I 313/1: Dirty little vagabonds, dressed in very full short trowsers, or rather leg-bags of dingy red drugget.
1871		J. Paul Flower, Fruit and Thorn Pieces I 76: His black leather leg-bags were in the dye- pot.
1886		Amer. Tailor & Cutter 219/1: Give us no trouser at all in preference to this execrably dull and funeral pair of leg-bags that have neither oddity nor gorgeousness in them.

unauthorized absence; also as v.; thus give/tip leg-bail (and land security), to escape, to run off; leg-bail and land security, a runaway.

1768		J. Ray Proverbs (4th edn) in Bohn (1855) 55: He has given him leg bail i.e. decamped.
a.1774		R. Fergusson ‘Elegy’ Poems (1821) 103: They took leg-bail an’ ran awa’.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Leg [...] to give leg bail and land security, to run away.
c.1790		‘Luke Caffrey’s Ghost’ in Limerick 3: He gave dem leg bail for his appearance at de next crak-neck assembly, be de hoky!
1800		‘When First From Kilkenny’ in Jovial Songster 71: A rude press-gang assail’d me, / And tho’ I tipp’d them leg bail, my jewel, soon nail’d me.
1809		Horry & Weems Life of General F. Marion (1816) 207: The rest, by giving good leg-bail, made their escape.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].
1821		‘An Amateur’ Real Life in London I 137: [He] grabb’d his pocket-handkerchief, and was after shewing a leg,† when a little boy that kept his oglers upon ’em, let me into the secret, and let the cat out of the bag by bawling — Stop thief! [†Shewing a leg — or, as it is sometimes called, giving leg bail — making the best use of legs to escape detection].
1825		N.-Y. American 2 Mar. 2/4: When near the [police] office, [he] gave his keepers the slip, and as the saying is, ‘cut dirt,’ or [...] gave them leg-bail.
1828		Australian (Sydney) 11 Apr. 3/3: He was all of a sudden trapped, become the handcuffed protege of a constable, and conveyed ashore; but taking an opportunity of [...] slipping his wrists out of handcuffs, he also slipped from his escort, leaving no bail but leg bail for his re-appearance.
1830		Ely’s Hawk & Buzzard (NY) 3 July 3/1: [He] has given leg bail to his creditors.
1832		Albany Microscope (NY) 2 June n.p.: Ivers Barton [...] took ‘leg bail’ and cleared for Buffalo.
1832		Satirist (London) 4 Mar. 79/2: He has [...] given leg-bail to the sheriff’s officers.
1834		Trumpeter General (Hobart, Tas.) 17 Oct. 3/4: Upon being apprehended he showed fight, and commenced swearing like a trooper, and at last ran like a trooper’s horse, and gave the constable leg bail.
1838		‘Paul Pry’ Oddities of London Life I 24: I said, ‘will any body hould me child,’ and after Pat Welch tuk it, Biddy legbailed from me.
1838		Dickens Oliver Twist (1966) 192: He has us now if he could only give us leg-bail again.
1840		The Sydney Monitor and Commercial Advertiser 17 July 2/4: After being examined and remanded pro tem, before our magistrates for some defalcation [he] was popped in ‘Quad,’ and through a slight over sight on the part of our kind hearted Lock-up keeper, Tool, took leg-bail.
1843		Gleaner (Manchester, NH) 22 July n.p.: He took an opportunity [...] and offered leg bail [and] it proved effectual to his realease. He accordingly escaped to Lowell, Mass.
1847		J. Downey Cruise of the Portsmouth (1963) 60: By the Lord, if old Bull does get at them, he’ll knock their old Castle about their ears and the cholos will have to give leg bail.
1850		E.V. Kenealy Goethe: a New Pantomime 2: My master Virgil, in the lying tale / Of him who shew’d his wife leg bail [etc.].
1853		R.S. Surtees Mr Sponge’s Sporting Tour 188: That [...] is a capital fellow—Lord Legbail, eldest son of the Marquis of Loosefish.
1857		Bell’s Life in Sydney 12 Dec. 3/3: [heading] Sinclair v. Sparkes — Leg Bail.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum 51: leg-bail and land security Runaway.
1861		T. Hughes Tom Brown at Oxford (1880) 122: Like a wise man [he] was giving them leg-bail as hard as he could foot it.
1865		Kiama Indep. (NSW) 19 Jan. 4/5: There the urchin took advantage of a very steep bank, and suddenly gave his keeper leg-bail. [...] The young imp again escaped, and is still at large.
1872		G.P. Burnham Memoirs of the US Secret Service iv: Leg-Bail, to escape, or run away from court or prison.
1875		Eve. News (Sydney) 30 Aug. 2/5: The prisoner Jamieson subsequently took leg bail by escaping from the Central Police Station, and is still at large.
1885		D.C. Murray Rainbow Gold I 158: I told him I should have to give ’em leg bail as well.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 44: Leg Bail, to clear out.
1899		‘Pot’ & ‘Swears’ Scarlet City 58: Never chaff a crossing-sweeper about game unless you’re prepared [...] with leg bail.
1907		D. Stewart Shadows of the Night in Illus. Police News 8 June 12/4: ‘How on earth did you get a ticket-o’-leave?’ ‘I took it, you idiot — French leave — gave ’em leg bail for it’.
1910		P.W. Joyce Eng. As We Speak It In Ireland.
1917		Boy’s Own Paper XL 4 170: That brute means biz. My stars, Art, it’s leg bail this time!
1922		Joyce Ulysses 405: Skunked? Leg bail.
1923		P. MacGill Moleskin Joe 306: He escaped and now he’s on leg-bail.
1946		D. MacDonagh Happy as Larry Act I: I’ve never met a woman yet / I’d trust around the corner; / Give them leg-bail and they’re gone / With hangman or informer.

(US Und.) a hired thug.

1969		D.R. Cressey Theft of Nation 82: One Chicago collector likes to refer to himself as ‘The Leg Breaker.’ Murder, however, is frowned upon by usurers.
1972		M. Puzo Godfather Papers 208: The credit people have one hundred billion bucks working on the street and not a leg-breaker on the payroll.
1976		Publisher’s Wkly 210 70/3: Spenser always finds a ‘leg breaker,’ an enforcer, dogging his client's heels .
1986		R.B. Parker Catskill Eagle 99: ‘You’re a goddamned leg breaker because of racism?’ I said. ‘No, I a leg breaker ’cause the hours are short and the pay is good’.
1997		(con. 1970s) G. Pelecanos King Suckerman (1998) 142: ‘Leg breakers’ – her husband Pete had called them that in the old days.
2001		(con. 1975–6) E. Little Steel Toes 163: You, beefcake . . . whatcha, a legbreaker?
2005		D. Wexler Memories of Empire 54: ‘A bonus! I’ll give you a bonus if you kill him!’ Zon, the big leg breaker, shook his head slowly.
2011		Jacobs & Kooperman Breaking the Devil’s Pact 29: Robert Rispo, a self-described ‘leg breaker,’ beat up Teamsters who objected to a labor-leasing scheme.
2014		M. Miner ‘The Hurt Business’ in ThugLit July [ebook] I’m a leg breaker by trade. Muscle for Johnny Del Negro, the loan shark.

(UK und.) a thief who poses as a window clearer and/or mender so as to access the premises and then rob them.

1845

G.W.M. Reynolds Mysteries of London vol. 2 142: Leg-glazier A thief who carries the apparatus of a glazier, and calls at houses when he knows the master and mistress are out, telling the servant that he has been sent to clean and mend the windows. By these means he obtains admission, and plunders the house of any thing which he can conveniently carry off.

a male music-hall enthusiast, sitting near enough the stage to ogle the chorus girls’ legs.

[1869		Man about Town 18 Sept. 15/2: [Y]ou could on the pier gladden your eyes with more ‘leg’ fascination than even the Alhambra itself could display].
1890		Music Hall & Theatre Rev. 5 July 7/2: Ain’t they daisies, these leg inspectors.

see separate entry.

1. (orig. Aus.) a drink given to a woman in the hope of getting her drunk enough for seduction.

1945		R.S. Close Love me Sailor 21: Ah ha! So de old man he giff her some leg opener, eh?
1959		D. Hewett Bobbin Up (1961) 122: Gotta bit of leg opener in the back seat of the heap.
1965		L. Haylen Big Red 133: Shearers had been known to buy a bottle of Charlie’s ‘leg-opener’ to knock off a sheila.
1985		B. Humphries Traveller’s Tool 55: The average wholesome leg-opener does not force a sheilah to perform acts of intimacy against her will.
1993		B. Moore Lex. of Cadet Lang. 212: usage: ‘Gave her a hell of a lot of leg openers but nothing doing, she didn’t even get pissy’.

2. used of a soporific drug.

1995

H. Kureishi Black Album 52: ‘How many d'you want?’ the kid said. ‘Three.’ The kid laid three of the bombs in his palm; Shahid popped two. ‘What d'you call these?’ Shahid asked. ‘These white ones? Leg-openers. I’ve got other sorts’.

see separate entry.

(Aus.) married.

1908

Bulletin (Sydney) 6 Aug. 15/1: Old Sorghum’s girl had told him the old, old lie. Love bourgeoned in his heart, and he sought his male parent’s benison. ‘Me an’ Liz is thinkin’ er gettin’ leg-roped nex’ church Sund’y, father,’ he said.

(US black) socks; stockings.

1941		D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive (1944) 25: Them leg-sacks were stashed by the smoke-hole, in fact.
1942		D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam Star-News 7 Feb. 16: Togged in some hipchick legsacks with a pair of hardhitting [...] groundpads.

(US) whisky.

1861

R.F. Burton City of the Saints 30: He can do nothing without whisky, which he loves to call tarantula-juice, strychnine, red-eye, corn-juice, Jersey lightning, leg-stretcher, ‘tangle-leg,’ and many other hard and grotesque names.

see separate entries.

the penis.

1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
c.1904		A. Crowley Snowdrops from a Curate’s Garden 25: Dick’s best leg of three vibrated. Clara’s medlar got a fair share of fun out of his knuckles.

to get drunk.

1678

J. Ray Proverbs (2nd edn) 87: Proverbiall Periphrases of one drunk. He’s disguised [...] He has cut his leg. He is afflicted.

see under dead adj.

to take unfair advantage.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1822		Egan Life and Adventures of Samuel Hayward 36: Our hero was now what is termed ‘on the town;’ or, in other words, a man of the world, fighting at the leg* upon all occasions. [*Knowing, ingenious; to turn every event to a good account].
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

1. to win an advantage.

1895		Truth (Sydney) 17 Mar. 1/1: Mr Schey, having got a ‘leg in’ with his Eight-Hour measure [...] is as happy as a chimpanzee with a chameleon’s cuticle.
1912		Bulletin (Sydney) 11 July 26/2: The team which annexes the big prize in Sydney gets a free leg-in and expenses paid to Melbourne, where the promoters intend to hang up another thousand at the end of October, a month after the Stadium tussles.

2. to gain someone’s confidence, to win over.

1900

Bulletin (Sydney) 21 Apr. 24/3: Old ‘Bill’ Beach tripped it from Dapto to Sydney Gun Club shoot the other day, and got a leg-in for the Monte Carlo trophy, despite the efforts of 15 others.

to charm, to seduce.

1873

F. Kilvert Diary (1944) 12 Dec. 230: Long Wellesley [a notorious rake] told the people how he had ‘got up the old lady's legs and married her daughter’.

to help someone (occas. something) over an obstacle, wall etc, both physical and fig., esp. to advance themselves professionally; thus get a leg up v., to gain such an advantage; thus leg-up n.

1824		Coll. State Trials 1303/1: He was the other man who gave him a leg up [i.e. onto a horse].
1836–7		Dickens Pickwick Papers (1999) 219: The wall is very low, sir, and your servant will give you a leg up.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. 170: ‘To give a leg,’ to assist, as when one mounts a horse.
1866		J. Greenwood Little Ragamuffin 113: Up you goes [...] put your foot on the spokes, and I’ll give you a bunch up.
1871		London Figaro 9 Oct. n.p.: There are authors who require a leg-up before starting [F&H].
1876		C. Hindley Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack 171: All the stall-keepers’ people and Cheap Johnny coves that can get away have promised to come [...] to give you a leg up.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 11 July 7/2: The chronicling of these facts ought to give a ‘leg up’ to the Church and improve the price of sittings all round.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 27 Jan. 13/1: A Gosford (N.S.W.) family named Legge is alleged to have sent five sons to the war. A genuine case of giving the cause a leg-up.
1901		Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Dec. 36/3: There, his aristocratic vowel-turns gained him the gushes of the ladies. Besides, he had moved in society, which also gave a leg-up.
1905		E.W. Hornung Thief in the Night (1992) 405: Come, Bunny, give me a leg up.
1910		H.G. Wells Hist. of Mr Polly (1946) 93: I can’t half hear. Give me a leg up!
1923		Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves 190: I’m all for [...] giving the Colonies a leg-up.
1943		P. Larkin letter 2 Jan. in Thwaite Sel. Letters (1992) 53: Well, Philip Brown and I started recording our dreams, and Karl gave us a leg up.
1954		A. Buckeridge According to Jennings (1991) 91: I’ll give you a leg-up through the window.
1954		K. Amis letter 3 Jan. in Leader (2000) 357: You must have seen that old Snow gave you a leg-up in the S. Times last week.
1961		B. Crump Hang On a Minute, Mate (1963) 100: Here, Jack, I’ll give you a leg up. See if you can reach down and pull the plug.
1972		B. Crump ‘Fred’ Best of Barry Crump (1974) 288: His wife had probably had to [...] give him a leg up into the saddle because of his sciatica.
1977		S. Kernochan Dry Hustle 184: Hoboes [...] shouldn’t give a well man a leg up into a boxcar noxious with crime.
2000		F.X. Toole Rope Burns 106: He would be able to help his own kids [...] help them get a leg up in a world that cared less and less.
2001		K. Sampson Outlaws (ms.) 175: I appreciated Ged taking us on though — fuck, did he ever give me a leg up there.
2004		T. Winton ‘Fog’ Turning (2005) 240: Give me a leg up, she said. See if that gets me high enough.

to tease, to hoax.

1972

G.V. Higgins Friends of Eddie Coyle 69: You’re giving me a little leg about there’s nothing going on.

1. (Aus.) to have a chance for.

1871		Aus. Town & Country Jrnl (Sydney) 8 July 5/2: The highest scorer [...] should have ‘a leg’ in the great silver cup.
1880		Maitland Mercury (NSW) 3 June 4/2: [F]our persons have a " leg in" for the special prize.
1900		Cobar Herald (NSW) 5 May 3/1: They [i.e. a cricket team] also have a leg-in for the competition cup.

2. to be in an advantageous relationship with.

1913		Sport (Adelaide) 22 Feb. 12/1: They Say [...] Flossy, better keep clear of Pompy, because Pompy has a leg in with Hilda ’.
2013		Way A New Idea Each Morning 52: ‘It was a damned wise move on my part to get in touch with Labour people before the Conference, as a result I have a leg in with them now’.
2017		medium,com 24 Jan. 🌐 Hewlett is 21 [...] and already has a leg in with the A-listers of America and the elite of England.

(Aus.) of female legs, long and sexy.

2002		IntheMix: Forums 19 Oct. 🌐 Growing up in the western suburbs.. we had a line - ‘you’ve got legs like waterworks road’ - some people should be able to guess the rest :blush:.
2008		SAJ Stuff 4 Mar. [blog] I laughed for a good ten minutes when I heard Jimmy Maher [...] say ‘she’s got legs like Waterworks Road... all the way to The Gap’ on the radio. Had to be there I guess.
2014		reddit 28 Apr. 🌐 ‘She had legs like Waterworks Road, they went all the way to the gap’.

(Irish) to be free to live one’s life without restraint.

1890		Era (London) 20 Dec. 11/1: He begins to grow tired of his wife’s tyranny, and [...] thinks it is time to have a loose leg.
1997		Share Slanguage.

(Aus./N.Z.) to be a sycophant, a toady.

1943		J.A.W. Bennett ‘Eng. as it is Spoken in N.Z.’ in AS XVIII:2 Apr. 91: ‘You’ve got legs on your belly’ would be addressed to a sponger or sycophant.
1951		(con. 1941) E. Lambert Twenty Thousand Thieves 188: Splinter Norton from C Company. Got legs on his belly.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 126: legs on your belly A crawler, who needs legs on the belly in order to express servility. Mid C20.
2010		www.mb2forums 16 Oct. 🌐 Slimy little prick you have legs on your belly.

see have someone/something by the balls under balls n.

see separate entry.

a woman’s leg.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: A Leg of Mutton in a Silk Stocking, a Woman’s Leg.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
c.1750–1882		B.M. Carew Life and Adventures.
1902		H. Baumann Londinismen (2nd edn).

a lawyer.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

(orig. US) a male description of a woman with exceptionally long and attractive legs.

1967		E. Shepard Doom Pussy 131: Wonder if her legs run all the way up to her ass?
1977		‘John le Carré’ Honourable Schoolboy 133: My secretary. very nice. Legs go right up to its bottom, so they tell me.
1992		R.G. Barrett White Shoes 35: A backside that would break your heart [and] a long, muscled pair of brown legs that ran all the way up to it.
2000		G.V. Higgins At End of Day (2001) 125: Legs that go all the way up and a rack should be insured with Lloyds of London.
2001		C. Brookmyre A Big Boy Did It and Ran Away 9: A frontwoman who was blond with legs all the way up to her head.
2011		http://www.boards.ie 3 Feb. 🌐 I was on the bus today & a hot looking broad got on, figure hugging outfit, ferrari chassis on her, legs all the way up to her arse.

to be drunk.

1770

Gent.’s Mag. 560/1: To express the condition of an Honest Fellow [...] under the Effects of good Fellowship, [...] It is also said that he has [...] 63 Lost his Leggs.

to stumble drunkenly.

1622		Rowlands Good Newes and Bad Newes 43: A Fellow that had beene excessiue trading, In taking liquor beyond his lading, Of Claret and the Spanish Malligo, That’s legs vnable were vpright to goe; But sometime wall, and sometimes kennell taking, And as the phrase is vs’d, Indentures making.
1639		J. Taylor Juniper Lecture 90: Reeling up and downe the streete, and making Indentures.
1653		Mercurius Democritus 9-16 Feb. 349: Each Brewer that I met, I kist, and made / Suit to serve Apprentice to the Trade; / One did approve the Motion when he saw, / That my own Leggs could the Indenters draw.
1678		J. Ray Proverbs (2nd edn) 87: Proverbiall Periphrases of one drunk. He’s disguised [...] He makes indentures with his legs.
1700		‘The Art of Drinking’ Wit’s Cabinet 138: He makes Indentures.
1737		B. Franklin ‘Drinkers Dictionary’ in Pennsylvania Gazette 6 Jan. in AS XII:2 91: They come to be well understood to signify plainly that A MAN IS DRUNK. [...] He makes Indentures with his Legs.

(costermonger) to make money.

1830		Mr Mathews’ Comic Annual 23: I like to make leg while the sun shines.
1877		J. Diprose London Life 42: These knights of the barrow – in the language of the fraternity – often boast that if one ‘pulls up his boot,’ he can ‘make the up his leg’ by going to market early and ‘knock in’ his ‘ten or twelve hog afore breakfast’.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.

see with one hand (tied behind one’s back) under hand n.¹

(US prison) toadying.

2002		(con. 1998–2000) J. Lerner You Got Nothing Coming 187: Sergeant Stanger tells me you chumped him of in front of the assistant warden. Says you were way up on the leg!
2006		Prison Slang Mommyblogger mydogharriet.blogspot.com 2 Mar. 🌐 That knick-knack needs to get mud checked for getting on your leg and then cappin’ it with no explanation.

1. (US campus) to curry favour with, to act the toady.

1896

W.C. Gore Student Sl. in Cohen (1997) 18: pull one’s leg To curry favor with.

2. (US) to ask for a loan of money.

1886		Lantern (N.O.) 20 Oct. 3: Poor Charles Ernest is so stuck on a fairy named Emma Brown, that she can make him do anything she wishes. Some days ago she bumped his head for stuff, and a few nights ago pulled his leg for more.
1894		J.K. Bangs Three Weeks in Politics 23: The verb ‘to-pull-a-leg’ means to extract from his pocket all the lucre it will yield.
1898		Binstead & Wells Pink ’Un and Pelican 201: I am very sorry that I was forced to pull your leg for so large an amount yesterday.
1927		C. Woofter ‘Dialect Words & Phrases from West-Central West Virginia’ in AS II:8 362: I will have to pull the old man’s leg if I go to Pittsburgh.

3. (Aus.) to subject to a confidence trick.

1924

C.J. Dennis ‘A Holy War’ in Chisholm (1951) 76: I knoo this Spike uv old; a reel bad egg, / ‘Oo’s easy livin’ is to git in tow / Some country mug, an’ pull ’is little leg / Fer all ’is dough.

(US) to hurry up.

1955

B. Appel Tough Guy [ebook] ‘Put a leg on!’ the Bug ordered Joey.

(Aus.) to control or restrain a third party, esp. when acting in a hysterical or very bad-tempered manner.

[1881		Wallaroo Times (SA) 21 Sept. 1/3: On one occasion a young heifer was brought in that proved rather unmanageable. The coachman was unsuccessful in his attempts to put the leg-rope on the youngster [etc] ].
1905		Wingham Chron. (NSW) 25 Jan. 2/5: During the last two Parliaments the officials succeeded in securing Mr. W. Bennett ‘by the wool,’ and put the ‘leg rope’ on the members of the Government.
1910		Gippsland Times (Vic.) 21 Mar. 3/4: The State wanted to put the leg rope on the Commonwealth lest it should be extravagant in thus expending the money.
1945		Baker Aus. Lang. 91: To put the leg-rope on a person, to discipline him or her.

to run off, to abscond.

1824

History of Gaming Houses & Gamesters 52: [She is] ‘neither a wooden-leg, nor even a broken-leg, nor belonging to those emigres from our soil who have taken leg.

a general excl. of disdain, dismissal, arrogant contempt.

1943

R. Llewellyn None But the Lonely Heart 115: ‘Parlour me hind legs,’ old Henry yells. ‘How many times you got to be told, Dowager? The drawing room, you soppy old mare.’.

a teasing remark, aimed at anyone recently freed from prison.

1823

‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc.