Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One of the limbs or appendages that an animal uses for locomotion or support.
  • noun One of the lower or hind limbs in humans and other primates.
  • noun The part of the limb between the knee and foot in vertebrates.
  • noun The back part of the hindquarter of a meat animal.
  • noun A supporting part resembling a leg in shape or function.
  • noun One of the branches of a forked or jointed object.
  • noun The part of a garment, especially of a pair of trousers, that covers the leg.
  • noun Mathematics Either side of a right triangle that is not the hypotenuse.
  • noun A stage of a journey or course, especially.
  • noun Nautical The distance traveled by a sailing vessel on a single tack.
  • noun The part of an air route or a flight pattern that is between two successive stops, positions, or changes in direction.
  • noun One of several contests that must be successfully completed in order to determine the winner of a competition.
  • noun Sports One stretch of a relay race.
  • noun The narrow streams of swirled wine or spirits that run slowly down along the inside of a glass, often believed to indicate that the liquid is full-bodied.
  • noun Slang The ability to last or sustain success, especially by appealing to an audience.
  • intransitive verb To go on foot; walk or run. Often used with the indefinite it.
  • idiom (a leg to stand on) A justifiable or logical basis for defense; support.
  • idiom (a leg up) The act or an instance of assisting; a boost.
  • idiom (a leg up) A position of advantage; an edge.
  • idiom (on (one's) last legs) At the end of one's strength or resources; ready to collapse, fail, or die.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One of the two lower limbs of man, or any one of the limbs of an animal which support and move the body.
  • noun Some object resembling a leg in use, position, or appearance: as, the legs of a table or chair; the legs of a pair of dividers; the legs of a triangle (the sides, as opposed to the base, especially the sides adjacent to a right angle); the leg of an angle, or of a hyperbola.
  • noun Hence Something that serves for support, moral or physical.
  • noun The part of a pair of trousers or drawers, or of a stocking, that covers the leg.
  • noun In cricket:
  • noun The part of the field that lies to the left of and behind the batsman as he faces the bowler: as, to strike a ball to leg.
  • noun The fielder who occupies that part of the field known as leg. Also long-leg.
  • noun A sharper: same as black-leg, 3.
  • noun Naut.: The run made by a ship on one tack when beating to windward.
  • noun One of two Small ropes spliced together, by which a buntline or leech-line is fastened to the foot or leech of a sail.
  • An abbreviation of legato.
  • To pass on; walk or run nimbly: often with an indefinite it.
  • To make a reverence.
  • noun An abbreviation of legislative or legislature; of legal; of legate; of the Latin legit, he reads; of legunt, they read.
  • noun In telephony, a wire used for connecting a subscriber's line directly with the main switchboard.
  • noun Same as water-leg.
  • noun In machinery: The movable case which contains the bucket-belt or -conveyer of a grain-elevator.
  • noun The tube in which the grain is lifted into an elevator.
  • noun In mining, a peculiar form of quartz-reef, forming a nearly vertical prolongation of the saddle.
  • noun A tongue-like portion of some geologic formation which projects from the main mass or intrudes others. The term is a local one used in England for such relationship in different drift deposits.
  • noun A play in which ‘leg-business’ is a prominent feature.
  • noun His position in the field.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A limb or member of an animal used for supporting the body, and in running, climbing, and swimming; esp., that part of the limb between the knee and foot.
  • noun That which resembles a leg in form or use; especially, any long and slender support on which any object rests
  • noun The part of any article of clothing which covers the leg.
  • noun obsolete A bow, esp. in the phrase to make a leg; probably from drawing the leg backward in bowing.
  • noun Slang, Eng. A disreputable sporting character; a blackleg.
  • noun (Naut.) The course and distance made by a vessel on one tack or between tacks.
  • noun (Steam Boiler) An extension of the boiler downward, in the form of a narrow space between vertical plates, sometimes nearly surrounding the furnace and ash pit, and serving to support the boiler; -- called also water leg.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old Norse leggr.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English leg, from Old Norse leggr ("leg, calf, bone of the arm or leg, hollow tube, stalk"), from Proto-Germanic *lagjaz, *lagwijaz (“leg, thigh”), from Proto-Indo-European *(ǝ)lak-, *lēk- (“leg; the main muscle of the arm or leg”). Cognate with Scots leg ("leg"), Icelandic leggur ("leg, limb"), Norwegian legg ("leg"), Swedish lägg ("leg, shank, shaft"), Danish læg ("leg"), Lombardic lagi ("thigh, shank, leg"), Latin lacertus ("limb, arm").

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Examples

Comments

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  • Gel in reverse.

    November 3, 2007

  • In the finance industry: "A risk-oriented method of establishing a two-sided position. Rather than entering into a simultaneous transaction to establish the position (a spread, for example), the trader first executes one side of the position, hoping to execute the other side at a later time and a better price. The risk materializes from the fact that a better price may never be available, and a worse price must eventually be accepted." --CBOE Dictionary

    July 6, 2009