LEG

Definitions

1. 1. 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.
2. 2. That which resembles a leg in form or use; especially, any long and slender support on which any object rests; as, the leg of a table; the leg of pair of compasses or dividers.
3. 3. The part of any article of clothing which covers the leg; as, the leg of a stocking or of a pair of trousers.
4. 4. A bow, esp. in the phrase to make a leg; probably from drawing the leg backward in bowing. [Obs.] He that will give a cap and make a leg in thanks for a favor he never received. Fuller.
5. 5. A disreputable sporting character; a blackleg. [Slang, Eng.]
6. 6. The course and distance made by a vessel on one tack or between tacks.
7. 7. 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.
8. 8. The case containing the lower part of the belt which carries the buckets.
9. 9. A fielder whose position is on the outside, a little in rear of the batter. A good leg (Naut.), a course sailed on a tack which is near the desired course. -- Leg bail, escape from custody by flight. [Slang] -- Legs of an hyperbola (or other curve) (Geom.), the branches of the curve which extend outward indefinitely. -- Legs of a triangle, the sides of a triangle; -- a name seldom used unless one of the sides is first distinguished by some appropriate term; as, the hypothenuse and two legs of a right-angled triangle. On one's legs, standing to speak. -- One's last legs. See under Last. -- To have legs (Naut.), to have speed. -- To stand on one's own legs, to support one's self; to be independent.