a. Having long legs: used spec. in the names of some animals.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., II. ii. 21. Hence you long-leg’d Spinners, hence.
1592. Chettle, Kinde-harts Dr. (1841), 18. Is it not absurde to see a long legd lubber pinned in a chayre [etc.]?
1676. Lond. Gaz., No. 1079/4. They are shaped like a Moscovy Mallard, but larger and longer legg’d.
1717. Berkeley, Jrnl. Tour Italy, 30 May, in Fraser, Life (1871), 555. All the spiders except the long-legged ones bite.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, xix. What could have brought down the lang-legged loons to do their bloody wark within burgh?
1831. A. Wilson & Bonaparte, Amer. Ornith., III. 75. Recurvirostra himantopus … Long-legged plover.
1848. Johnston, in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, II. No. 6. 292. The Phalangia,… or long-legged spiders.
1875. W. S. Hayward, Love agst. World, 14. A long-legged puppy.
b. Naut. Of a ship: Drawing a great deal of water.
1802. Naval Chron., VIII. 83. Those ships being, to make use of a nautical phrase, too long legged for the eastern yard.
1867. in Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk.,
