leggyn.
/ˈlɛɡi/, U.S. /ˈlɛɡi/ Cricket.
1. A leg-break delivery.
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society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > cricket > bowling > [noun] > a ball bowled > types of delivery or ball
full toss1826
long hop1830
twister1832
bail ball1833
bailer1833
grubber1837
slow ball1838
wide1838
ground ball1839
shooter1843
slower ball1846
twiddler1847
creeper1848
lob1851
sneak1851
sneaker1851
slow1854
bumper1855
teaser1856
daisy-cutter1857
popper1857
yorker1861
sharpshooter1863
headball1866
screwball1866
underhand1866
skimmerc1868
grub1870
ramrod1870
raymonder1870
round-armer1871
grass cutter1876
short pitch1877
leg break1878
lob ball1880
off-break1883
donkey-drop1888
tice1888
fast break1889
leg-breaker1892
kicker1894
spinner1895
wrong 'un1897
googly1903
fizzer1904
dolly1906
short ball1911
wrong 'un1911
bosie1912
bouncer1913
flyer1913
percher1913
finger-spinner1920
inswinger1920
outswinger1920
swinger1920
off-spinner1924
away swinger1925
Chinaman1929
overspinner1930
tweaker1938
riser1944
leg-cutter1949
seamer1952
leggy1954
off-cutter1955
squatter1955
flipper1959
lifter1959
cutter1960
beamer1961
loosener1962
doosra1999
1954 Spectator 5 Mar. 266/2 ‘That's the google,’ he would say, as the ball left the hand: or ‘That's your leggy.’
1984 Listener 10 Mar. 26 Chris Smith asked Billy Ibadulla how to play leg-spin. Ibadulla..did what he could, including bowling him some leggies.
1996 B. Cattell Big Test ii. 19 He bowls off-spin, although he doesn't turn the ball nearly as much as Tylan's leggies.
1999 Sun 22 June 33/1 The sight of those huge-turning leggies sent the South Africans into panic.
2007 S. Wales Evening Post (Nexis) 11 July 42 I asked him to bowl leggies..and he landed each ball of the over exactly on the spot and made it turn.
2. A leg-break bowler.
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society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > cricket > cricketer > [noun] > bowler > types of bowler
slow bowler1823
fast bowler1828
bias bowler1854
round-arm1858
demon bowler1861
left-hander1864
chucker1882
lobster1889
slow1895
leg-breaker1904
speed merchant1913
leg-spinner1920
spin bowler1920
off-spinner1924
quickie1934
tweaker1935
swerve-bowler1944
pace bowler1947
seam bowler1948
spinner1951
seamer1952
wrist-spinner1957
outswinger1958
swing bowler1958
quick1960
stock bowler1968
paceman1972
leggy1979
1979 Canberra Times 13 Jan. 43/5 Both have similar balance to their attacks—three pace bowlers, an off spinner and a leggie.
1988 Sydney Morning Herald (Nexis) 2 Sept. 49 When was the last time that six leggies worked together at any Australian ground, the romantics pondered?
1995 B. Catell Bound for Glory (2007) xii. 100 ‘He's a good leggie,’ said Frankie, as his first ball had Clive groping at thin air outside the off-stump.
2013 Advertiser (Austral.) (Nexis) 24 Dec. 59 Australia's most successful spin bowlers have all been leggies with Shane Warne bagging 708 wickets, Richie Benaud 248, [etc.].
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, June 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
leggyadj.
/ˈlɛɡi/, U.S. /ˈlɛɡi/ 1.
a. Having long legs, (sometimes) spec. excessively or disproportionately so.
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the world > life > the body > external parts of body > limb > leg > [adjective] > types of > having
jamby?a1400
well-legged1566
spindle-shankedc1600
spindle-shank1604
post-legged1608
splay-legged1638
duck-legged1650
stalk-legged1659
long-limbed1660
sharp-shinned1704
spindle-legged1710
leggy1776
red-legged1817
flamingo-legged1862
thick-legged1873
split-up1874
pin-legged1884
lank-legged1906
straddly1921
1776 W. Ward New Treat. Method Breeding, Breaking, & Training, Horses 60 They are generally very leggy, long, loose made, and by no means so strong as when they advance farther in years.
1787 ‘G. Gambado’ Acad. Horsemen 17 If you are a short man, you spur the saddle cloth; if you are leggy you never touch him [sc. the horse] at all.
1827 Sporting Mag. 20 170 Great numbers of our racers..have always been too leggy.
1883 R. L. Stevenson Silverado Squatters 138 He looked neither heavy nor yet adroit, only leggy, coltish, and in the road.
1916 C. S. Plumb Judging Farm Animals l. 526 Formerly the Hampshire inclined to be somewhat leggy, but present day type pigs of the breed are not subject to special criticism in this regard.
1930 O. Lattimore High Tartary xii. 119 In a moment a shape came out of the dark; a leggy Qazaq youth riding one wild-eyed pony and leading another.
1968 V. Nabokov King, Queen, Knave (1989) ii. 40 His wife's wide bed..severely separated from his..by a night table on which sprawled a leggy rag doll with a black face.
2002 J. Cohen & I. Stewart Evolving Alien vii. 167 Wind-scorpions are the most leggy, hairy, fangy, scrabbly creatures you could ever hope not to find in your desert tent.
b. slang (originally U.S.). Of a woman: having attractively long, slender legs. Sometimes with a more general implication of sexual attractiveness.
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the world > physical sensation > sexual relations > sexual desire > [adjective] > causing sexual excitement or desire > specifically of a woman
lush1891
sexy1912
slutty1912
foxy1913
leggy1927
floozy?1930
sultry1940
nubile1944
the world > life > the body > external parts of body > limb > leg > [adjective] > types of > having > of a woman
leggy1927
1927 C. Woolrich Children of Ritz i. 17 Angela reappeared in an enormous broad-brimmed hat that made her look like one of the Gish sisters... And she was leggier than ever.
1942 L. V. Berrey & M. Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §427/2 Well-formed young woman,..leggy femme.
1976 Southern Evening Echo (Southampton) 13 Nov. 8/5 (caption) They missed the chance of a close-up of three leggy lovelies who called in at a city supermarket.
1984 Listener 12 Jan. 30/1 The celebrity is invariably male, assisted inevitably by a couple of leggy dollybirds.
2001 Sun 27 Jan. 45/1 She's a leggy blonde and I couldn't believe it when she showed an interest in me.
2. Of a plant: having a disproportionately long stem.In quot. 1860 probably a conscious extended use of sense 1a.
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the world > plants > part of plant > stem or stalk > [adjective] > having a stem or stalk > of certain size, shape, length, or colour
gross1578
zigzag1793
thick-stemmed1847
leggy1860
1860 O. W. Holmes Professor at Breakfast-table x. 310 The white meeting-house, and the row of youthful and leggy trees before it.
1891 Bull. Cornell Univ. Agric. Exper. Station No. 32. 156 Drawn or so-called ‘leggy’ [tomato] plants usually give poor results in the field.
1932 Times Educ. Suppl. 9 July 267/4 If plants are crowded under glass they will grow ‘leggy’.
1965 H. G. W. Fogg Small Greenhouse v. 39 Put the boxes, etc., on a shelf close up under the glass of the greenhouse, to prevent the seedlings from becoming drawn and ‘leggy’.
1993 Martha Stewart Living Dec. 38/1 To keep the plants from getting too leggy or out of shape, simply pinch off wayward leaves and save them for the next good use.
2006 Scots Mag. June 602/1 Pansies became leggy and were attacked by slugs.
3. slang. Characterized by a display of legs, esp. featuring dancing girls in revealing costumes.
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1866 Daily Tel. 10 Jan. 7/3 This festival..has been pitiably vulgarised..by Christmas numbers of periodicals, Christmas concerts, leggy burlesques.
1887 Pall Mall Gaz. 17 Oct. 1/2 ‘Leggy’ burlesques.
1956 People 13 May 4/4 She viewed the leggy posing of the starlets with aristocratic disapproval.
1981 Washington Post (Nexis) 31 Oct. c2 Four can-can dancers did a leggy cabaret dance to music.
2013 Nottingham Post (Nexis) 24 July 27 In fact, it's a pleasingly leggy show.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1954
adj.1776