1. A disease in cattle and sheep that affects the legs. (Better black-legs.)
a. 1722. Lisle, Observ. Husb. (1757), 347. They have a distemper in Leicestershire frequent among the calves, which in that country they call the black-legs. It is a white jelly settling in their legs, from whence it has its name of black-legs.
1884. Illustr. Sydney News, 26 Aug., 15/2. A cattle disease, known as blackleg, is stated to have killed a number of cattle in the Mount Alexander district.
2. A turf swindler; also, a swindler in other species of gambling. (Formerly also black-legs.) [As in other slang expressions, the origin of the name is lost: of the various guesses current none seem worth notice.]
1771. P. Parsons, Newmarket, II. 163. The frequenters of the Turf, and numberless words of theirs are exotics every where else;—then how should we have been told of black-legs, and of town-tops … taken-in,—beat-hollow, [etc.].
1774. R. Cumberland, Note of Hand, II. i. Gentlemen of the turf; what sort of gentlemen are they? Francis. These fellows are gamblers, black-legs, sharpers.
1812. Examiner, 14 Sept., 591/1. Any blackleg or pickpocket in the land. Ibid. (1813), 17 May, 319/1. I was … posted as a black-legs.
1857. Thackeray, Eng. Hum., v. (1858), 245. You see noblemen and black-legs bawling and betting in the Cockpit.
3. A local name of opprobrium for a workman willing to work for a master whose men are on strike. (Also called black-neb.)
1865. Pall Mall Gaz., 29 Oct., 7. If the timber merchants persist in putting on ‘blacklegs,’ a serious disturbance will ensue.
4. Sc. = BLACKFOOT, a match-maker, rare.
Hence (in sense 2) Black-leggery, Blacklegism, the profession or practice of a black-leg.
1832. Maginn, in Blackw. Mag., XXXII. 427. From following any profession save the Army, the Navy, Black-apronry, and Black-leggery.
1882. Pall Mall Gaz., 9 Dec., 20. The two baronets resemble each other only in cowardice, spite, and blackleggery.
1845. Blackw. Mag., LVIII. 204. There was a fair amount of black-legism on both occasions.
