subs. (common).—1. A turf swindler, rook, welsher; also one who cheats at cards or billiards. Origin unknown: although many speculations have been hazarded, none are satisfactory. 2. (workmen’s). A workman who, when his fellows are on strike, is willing to go on working. 3. Also any one failing or refusing to join his fellows in combination for a given purpose. As verb, to boycott; to make things so uncomfortable for a man that he is compelled to leave his work or the town. TO BLACKLEG IT = (trades’ union) to return to work before the causes of a strike have been removed (or settled), to the satisfaction of the leaders. Hence BLACK-LEGGISM, BLACK-LEGGERY = cheating; swindling; the arts and practices of a blackleg, Now frequently shortened to LEG.
1771. P. PARSONS, Newmarket: or, An Essay on the Turf, 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; and how, while the author poured upon us, with a torrent of taken-in,—beat-hollow,… &c.
1774. COLMAN, The Man of Business, I., in Wks. (1777) II., 133. Countesses and sempstresses, lords, aldermen, BLACKLEGS, and Oxonians.
1812. COMBE, Dr. Syntax, Picturesque, x.
| The crowd with their commission pleas’d | |
| Rudely the trembling BLACK-LEG seiz’d, | |
| Who, to their justice forc’d to yield, | |
| Soon ran off dripping from the field. |
1830. S. WARREN, Diary of a Late Physician, xv. ‘Mr. T—— is pursuing quite disgraceful courses all night and day, squandering away his money among sharpers and BLACKLEGS.’
1832. MAGINN, in Blackwood’s Magazine, XXXII., 427. From following any profession save the Army, the Navy, Black-apronry and BLACK-LEGGERY.
1865. Pall Mall Gazette, 29 Oct., p. 7. If the timber merchants persist in putting on BLACKLEGS, a serious disturbance will ensue.
1888. Baltimore Herald, May 6. Early this morning the mountain paths leading to the William Penn colliery were lined with men, dinner in hand, determined to go to work. Some were non-union miners, while the remainder were Knights of Labor who had determined TO BLACKLEG IT, regardless of the jeers and threats of their companions.
1889. Pall Mall Gazette, Nov. 21, 5, 1. It was stated at the meeting that the master bakers were much behind the journeymen in the matter of organisation, and the difficulty of maintaining the price against unscrupulous bakers at ‘a living figure’ was emphasized. The question of the preparation of a list of master baker BLACKLEGS was also touched upon. These men are selling bread at 41/2 d. the quartern, and at even a lower rate.
