leg man, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

leg man n.

(orig. US)

1. as a user of one’s legs.

(a) a journalist who actively finds the news.

1923		I.S. Cobb Stickfuls: Compositions of a Newspaper Minion 137: Let a big story break — a fire, a crime, anything where the action is hurried and unexpected — and the leg man is promptly on hand.
1933		N. West ‘Miss Lonelyhearts’ in Coll. Works (1975) 246: He welcomes the job, for it might lead to a gossip column, and anyway he’s tired of being a leg man.
1946		K. Fearing Big Clock (2002) 103: If we wanted to break it, we’d give it a big play, thirty or forty legmen.
1948		J. Archibald ‘Klump a la Carte’ Popular Det. July 🌐 A hovering newspaper legman hurried to a public utility coop and feverishly spun the dial.
1975		F. Farr Life of Westbrook Pegler 41: His press badge proved that he was a reporter, but he occupied the low rank of a leg man who expended shoe-leather gathering the raw material.

(b) one who acts as a go-between for organized crime and its ‘customers’.

1939		Howsley Argot: Dict. of Und. Sl.
1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 126: Henry Jackson, of Everett, is Nick’s leg-man in Washington, running errands between the Seattle gang and the White House.
1955		B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 20: Some back-of-the-hand understanding between the landlord and a legman for the housing commissioner.
1974		‘P.B. Yuill’ Hazell Plays Solomon (1976) 114: Hazell was just the legman who went out and told the lies.

1947		B. Schulberg Harder They Fall (1971) 22: You would make a good leg-man for Krafft-Ebing.
1958		R. Prather Scrambled Yeggs 145: There were only three of them to begin with. Peel here and two thugs. The other two were just legmen, the boys that did the actual dirty work.
1962		R. Cook Crust on its Uppers 54: Marchmare and I do the hard work. You’re legman.
2000		Guardian 26 Feb. 10: I still do a fair amount for the party as a leg man.
2024		D. Swierczynski California Bear 105: ‘[T]he reason I bring up my wife is because she needs a leg man. Someone to help her with research, errands, that sort of thing’.

(d) any form of go-between.

1968

‘Hy Lit’ Hy Lit’s Unbelievable Dict. of Hip Words 50: leg man – An errand boy or any person who earns his living this way.

2. a man who prefers a woman’s legs to any other part of her anatomy; as opposed to an ass-man under ass n.or a tit man under tit n.²

1958		J.M. Elgart Over Sexteen 6 42: A group of men were exchanging their opinions about the opposite sex. They agreed there were ‘chest-men,’ ‘leg-men,’ etc [HDAS].
1973		L. Bangs in Psychotic Reactions (1988) 138: I’m not a big leg man or anything.
1999		at www.winnie-cooper.com 🌐 WWW.LEGSEX.COM is the only true website for the dedicated leg man, and it bowls you over this October, kicking into gear with more of the kind of photos you desire.
2004		V.R. Beaver Sky Soldiers 496: ‘You a leg man, too?’ ‘Samp’s a boob man, a hip man, and a leg man,’ Buddy said.