leg

Where “leg” sits in English frequency

Definition

1. 1
   A limb or appendage that an animal uses for support or locomotion on land.
2. 2
   In humans, the lower limb extending from the groin to the ankle.
3. 3
   The portion of the lower limb of a human that extends from the knee to the ankle.
4. 4
   A part of garment, such as a pair of trousers/pants, that covers a leg.
5. 5
   A rod-like protrusion from an inanimate object, such as a piece of furniture, supporting it from underneath.
6. 6
   Something that supports.
7. 7
   A stage of a journey, race etc.
8. 8
   A distance that a sailing vessel does without changing the sails from one side to the other.
9. 9
   One side of a multiple-sided (often triangular) course in a sailing race.
10. 10
    A single game or match played in a tournament or other sporting contest.
11. 11
    One of the two sides of a right triangle that is not the hypotenuse.
12. 12
    One of the two equal sides of an isosceles triangle.
13. 13
    One of the branches of a hyperbola or other curve which extend outward indefinitely.
14. 14
    The ability of something to persist or succeed over a long period of time.
15. 15
    A disreputable sporting character; a blackleg.
16. 16
    An extension of a steam 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.
17. 17
    In a grain elevator, the case containing the lower part of the belt which carries the buckets.
18. 18
    Denotes the half of the field on the same side as the batsman's legs; the left side for a right-handed batsman.
19. 19
    A branch or lateral circuit connecting an instrument with the main line.
20. 20
    A branch circuit; one phase of a polyphase system.
21. 21
    An underlying instrument of a derivatives strategy.
22. 22
    An army soldier assigned to a paratrooper unit who has not yet been qualified as a paratrooper.
23. 23
    A gesture of submission; a bow or curtsey. Chiefly in phrase make a leg.
24. 24
    A column, as a unit of length of text as laid out.
25. 25
    Synonym of leg up (“forming a step for a person's feet with one's hands”).
26. 26
    An individual bet in a parlay (a series of bets where the stake and winnings are cumulatively carried forward).
27. 27
    Synonym of blackleg (“a gambling cheat”).

Etymology

From Middle English leg, legge, from Old Norse leggr (“leg, calf, bone of the arm or leg, hollow tube, stalk”), from Proto-Germanic *lagjaz, *lagwijaz (“leg, thigh”) (see it for more). Cognate with Scots leg (“leg”), Icelandic leggur (“leg, limb”), Norwegian Bokmål legg (“leg”), Norwegian Nynorsk legg (“leg”), Swedish lägg (“leg, shank, shaft”), Danish læg (“leg”), Lombardic lagi (“thigh, shank, leg”), Latin lacertus (“limb, arm”), Persian لنگ (leng). Upon borrowing, mostly displaced the native Old English term sċanca (Modern English shank).

This word in other languages

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