Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

legger

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.10 in modern English

Syllables: leg-ger
IPA

8

Scrabble Score

6

Letters

2

Syllables

4

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

Informal

noun

A man employed by the owners of a canal to push boats through narrow canal tunnels. The legger would lie on his back on a piece of wood on the boat with his feet reaching to the tunnel wall, and walk it along. This could be done by the boat's crew, but the canals employed men specifically for the task because they could do it faster and prevent a tunnel becoming a bottleneck for traffic.

British usage; Obsolete

noun

Something having the specified kind or number of legs.

Example Sentences

"Oh, you mean the ex-legger the eldest girl picked up and went and married."
"Won't your ladyship condescend to use a three legger. (offers a stool)"
"[…] a yellow-legger, it also had a yellow beak. Which meant it wasn't a layer anymore and was okay to eat. Nowadays we get yellow-legged fryers."

Etymology

From leg + -er.

Usage

Inflected Forms

leggers (plural)

Phrases

thousand-legger

Frequently Paired Words

thousand-legger

Questions

What does legger mean?: A bootlegger.
Where does legger come from?: From leg + -er.

How to pronounce legger

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “legger”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling () so you know which sounds to aim for.
Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “legger”.
Repeat and practice — Say “legger” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.