[f. LEG sb.]
1. intr. To leg it: To use the legs, to walk fast or run; also simply to leg (Sc. and dial.).
1601. Deacon & Walker, Spirits & Divels, 3. Let vs legge it a little.
1790. D. Morison, Poems, 7. The wives leg hame an’ trim their fires.
1837. Haliburton, Clockm., Ser. I. xxiv. He was a leggin it off hot foot.
1899. R. Kipling, Stalky & Co., i. 4. We’re goin’ along the cliffs after butterflies…. We’re goin’ to leg it, too. You’d better leave your book behind.
† 2. To leg it, to ‘make a leg.’ To leg unto, to bow to (indirect passive in quot.). Obs. rare.
1628. Sir F. Hobart, Edw. II., cclii. [They] Are legg’d and crouch’d unto for feare they sting.
1633. Shirley, Bird in a Cage, V. i. He’l kisse his hand and leg it.
3. trans. To propel or work (a boat) through a canal-tunnel by means of the legs (see quot. 1861); to navigate (a tunnel) in this way; also to leg through.
1836. Sir G. Head, Home Tour, 144. Two hours is the time occupied in ‘legging’ a boat through.
1861. Smiles, Engineers, I. 441, note. The men who ‘leg’ the boat … lie on their backs … and propel it along by means of their feet pressing against the top or sides of the tunnel. Ibid., II. 421. After legging Harecastle Tunnel … the men were usually completely exhausted.
1885. B. E. Martin, in Harper’s Mag., May, 863/1. Now ’ere’s men that it ’urts, and even kills, to ‘leg through’ this ’ere tunnel.
1891. V. C. Cotes, Two Girls on Barge, 86. A little … boy was lying on his back, legging the boat along.
4. To leg up (a yacht): to shore up or support with legs or props when in dry harbour.
1886. R. C. Leslie, Sea-painter’s Log, iv. 68. To lay ashore and leg-up a yacht.
5. To hit on the leg. (Cf. WING v.)
1852. Blackw. Mag., LXXII. 393. Those [pebbles] aimed at his head and body he turned aside, and jumped over those that threatened to leg him.
6. dial. and slang. To trip up (a person) by seizing his leg.
1882. Sat. Rev., 22 April, 488/1. The policeman ordered them to move on…. Presently they ‘legged the copper,’ and he fell to the ground.
