pot-legn.

1842 W. R. Wade Journey Northern Island N.Z. 34 One of our boatmen quickly repeated that the place was tapued for the tanewa (a water demon). ‘And I wonder,’ was his irreverent addition, ‘what this same tanewa may be! An old pot leg, perhaps!’

1895 Scribner's Mag. Dec. 724/2 His mother, although she was secretly proud of his airs, told him with trenchant bluntness that his vanity stuck out like a pot-leg and must be lopped off.

1921 Manx Q. July in W. W. Gill Manx Dial. (1934) ii. 133 The great pot..was set down on the floor on a sheet or tablecloth, which prevents the slipping of the three little pot-legs on the stone floor.

1942 Amer. Antiq. 7 385 When legs do occur, they are heavy and stubby... An apron..is occasionally used instead of the pot leg.

1852 Cape Town Mail 29 May in Times 7 July 7/5 On this occasion it is stated that ‘the peculiar whiz of the enemies' balls told of iron pot legs and angular pieces of iron, and not of musket balls’.

1877 Let. in Times 30 Nov. 6/1 Then commenced the fighting in right earnest, pot legs and bullets whizzing over our heads.

1895 Chambers's Jrnl. 12 738/1 Ball or shot they rarely use, but prefer a handful of broken cast-iron potleg, which at close quarters makes a ghastly wound.

1900 Longman's Mag. Dec. 143 When the sergeant raised his officer, ragged potleg was whirring everywhere.

1911 P. Gibbon Margaret Harding 63 The ‘pot-leg’, the Kafir bullets hammered out of cold iron, sang in the air like flutes, and made a wound when they struck that a man could put his fist into.

1934 E. A. Walker Great Trek vi. 177 The Zulu array circled round..but..never closing for fear of the Boers' guns and their iron cannon loaded to the muzzle with scrap-iron and potlegs.