| 释义 |
▪ I. legger1|ˈlɛgə(r)|
[f. leg v. + -er1.]
A man who propels a canal barge through a tunnel by thrusting his legs against the walls.
1836Sir G. Head Home Tour 143 These men..are called ‘leggers’ for they literally work the boat with their legs, or kick it from one end of the tunnel to the other. 1841S. C. Brees Gloss. Terms Civ. Engin., Leggers, the name given to the men employed in conveying a barge through a canal tunnel, by means of pushing with their legs against the side walls.
▪ II. legger2|ˈlɛgə(r)|
[f. leg n. + -er1.]
1. In a slaughter-house, a butcher or packer who works on the legs of the carcasses.
1905F. W. Wilder Mod. Packing House v. 116 The number of men necessary in [different sized] beef killing groups..are given in the following table... 2 front leggers..3 hind leggers. 1923R. A. Clemen Amer. Livestock & Meat Industry xv. 332 A string of butchers now follow each other in rapid succession. The ‘leggers’ remove the hind legs at the hoof and the forelegs at the knee. 1949K. Stronach in A. E. Woodhouse N.Z. Farm & Station Verse (1950) 188 The legger slits as a surgeon does And the puncher strips the pelt. 1966Mate (Auckland) Aug. 42 Legger, the man who cuts out the legs from the newly killed lamb in the freezing works.
2. (See quot.)
1927T. Woodhouse Artificial Silk 95 In the manufacture of stockings on such frames two machines are used... One of these machines, termed the ‘legger’, knits the upper and longer part of the stocking, whereas the other machine, termed the ‘footer’, knits the remainder of the stocking.
▪ III. legger3 U.S. colloq.|ˈlɛgə(r)|
Shortened f. boot-legger. Also (with preceding hyphen) as the second element of Combs., an illegal seller (of something indicated in the first element).
1926[see hip a.]. 1929Variety 5 June 58/2 Leggers claim the tonic is as potent as a fifth of gin selling for three times the price. 1934Time 29 Jan. 49/1 Hundreds of U.S. citizens have smuggled copies through the customs or bought them from book-leggers. 1937Time 4 Jan. 11/2 Unlike Prohibition's liquor ‘leggers’, they are not growing rich. 1945Chicago Daily News 12 July 12/2 Most of the counterfeits have been used by steakleggers down East. 1945Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. I. 366 But of more interest..are the words showing recent vogue affixes, e.g...-legger, as in bootlegger and meatlegger. 1973Times Lit. Suppl. 20 Apr. 451/5 A sinister group of organ⁓leggers who go beyond the resurrectionists and try to keep the hospitals supplied with adequate numbers of fresh organs for transplants.
▪ IV. legger
variant of ledger. |