mid legn.adv.
/ˌmɪdˈlɛɡ/, U.S. /ˈmɪdˈlɛɡ/ A. n.
1. The middle of the leg.
ΚΠ
1534 J. Heywood Play of Loue sig. Aiv Ye Stood in colde water all a day to the kne And I halfe the same day to myd leg in the fyer.
1590 J. Smythe Certain Disc. Weapons Ded. 10 b Their souldiors in their watches..stoode to the mid legges in dyrt and myre.
1610 E. Bolton Elements of Armories sig. ee2 A Tabert, anciently a short gowne, that reached no further then to the mid-legge.
1675 in P. H. Brown Reg. Privy Council Scotl. (1911) 3rd Ser. IV. 437 In water to the midleg.
1695 R. Blackmore Prince Arthur ix. 267 Loose Mantles o'er their brawny Shoulders flung, with careless Pride beneath their midleg hung.
1726 J. Swift Gulliver I. i. vi. 108 The Sempstresses took my Measure as I lay on the ground, one standing at my Neck, and another at my Mid-Leg.
1748 tr. P. Lozano True Relation Earthquake Lima iii. 259 A large Handkerchief, which hangs down behind to the Mid-Leg.
1819 W. Scott Ivanhoe I. ii. 27 The former were naked from the elbow, and the latter from mid-leg.
1835 A. Smith Diary 1 Feb. (1939) I. 241 A man walking through it will sometimes sink to the knees, generally to midleg.
1907 J. Hollingshead Bardell versus Pickwick 2 Pickwick—A stout gentleman of about fifty;..black gaiters up to mid leg.
1933 J. Gray Lowrie 10 Ta save Kirsie I med a bool, an' firyat aboot da tub o' blots, platchin' richt in ta da mid leg.
1985 Proc. Royal Soc. B. 209 202 It can be shown that the mean windspeed at midleg height (0.15 m) is equal to 60% of the value at midtrunk height (0.46m).
2. Entomology. Either of the intermediate or second pair of legs of an insect.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > order Diptera or flies > [noun] > member of > parts of
mid leg1826
1826 W. Kirby & W. Spence Introd. Entomol. III. xxxiii. 379 Pedes Intermedii (the Mid-legs).
1848 S. Maunder Treasury Nat. Hist. Gloss. 794/1 Medipectoral, pertaining to the mid-legs of insects, which are affixed to the medipectus.
1932 E. Step Bees, Wasps, Ants & Allied Insects p. xxii (caption) Mid leg.
1995 P. E. King & P. J. A. Pugh in P. J. Hayward & J. S. Ryland Handbk. Marine Fauna N.W. Europe ix. 474 (in figure) Wing, scutellum, mid leg, hind leg.
B. adv.
To or at the middle of the (or a) leg.
ΚΠ
1803 J. Mayne Glasgow 33 Nae skelping now thro' mud and mire, Wi' coaties kiltit high and high'r, Mid-leg at least.
1829 W. H. Maxwell Stories Waterloo I. 194 His jockey boots..were in the newest style; the top..was met midleg by short tights of tea-coloured leather.
1878 H. S. Wilson Alpine Ascents ii. 42 We are wading mid-leg through it.
1991 Washington Post (Nexis) 31 Oct. t15 A slipper chair wrapped in a white sheet cinched with a wide gros-grain ribbon, mid-leg.
Compounds
Locative.
mid-leg deep adj.
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1770 J. Banks Jrnl. 30 May (1962) II. 72 It was necessary to pass a swamp coverd with mangrove trees..the mud under them was midleg deep.
1837 N. Hawthorne Twice-told Tales (1851) II. ix. 131 A solitary passenger is seen, now striding mid-leg deep across a drift.
1899 H. Garland Trail of Goldseekers xv. 142 We had made about twenty-three miles that day, notwithstanding tremendous steeps and endless mudholes mid-leg deep.
mid-leg high adj.
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1788 M. Cutler Jrnl. 7 Aug. in W. P. Cutler & J. P. Cutler Life & Corr. M. Cutler (1888) I. 404 We found fine feed in the road, clover mid-leg high.
1920 Jrnl. Negro Hist. 6 314 They are obliged to stand in water often time mid-leg high, exposed to the scorching heat of the sun.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.adv.1534