adjective
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having unusually long legs
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(of a woman) having long and shapely legs
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(of a plant) having an unusually long and weak stem
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(esp of a sportsperson) sluggish or fatigued; having tired legs
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of leggy
Explanation
When a person is described as leggy, it means they have very long legs. If your little sister is extremely tall and leggy for her age, you might suggest that she try out for the school basketball team. When a lovely woman is described as leggy, it's usually in an admiring way: "I felt like New York was full of leggy models that weekend." If you describe a plant as leggy, it's more likely to be critical, meaning something closer to "scrawny" or "spindly." When the daisies in your garden get too leggy, you'll have to stake them or even prune them so they can grow back fuller and healthier.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
In another, the Balanchine ballerina Diana Adams struts around as a jealous, leggy hatcheck girl.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
With a pair of bright pink tweezers in hand, Emma Teni is delicately wrestling a large and leggy spider in a small plastic pot.
From BBC ● May 16, 2025
A clumsily set-up “Broadway Baby” from “Follies,” in which Peters cheekily name-checks herself, eventually was redeemed when she was joined by other veteran troupers in leggy kick-line.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 14, 2025
She hurtled through the air most weeks as Lynda Carter’s stunt double on the hit television series “Wonder Woman” and mimed Ms. Carter’s leggy lope.
From New York Times ● May 11, 2024
I was long and leggy and mosquito-thin, a record-breaking twenty-five inches at Baptist Hospital.
From "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett
Zamaria loves tall vases such as this one for “longer-stemmed, leggier flowers and impressive displays.”
From Washington Post ● Oct. 25, 2022
It had one of the leggier runs in modern memory and ended up with $209m domestic.
From Forbes ● Mar. 23, 2015
The third film was a bit leggier, ending its 3D-enhanced domestic run with $352m domestic and a whopping $1.1b worldwide.
From Forbes ● Jun. 26, 2014
Ms. Vlasic was the only top competitor taller and leggier than Ms. Shkolina, who is 6-foot-2.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2012
The aria, "Ombra leggier," is fairly lavish in its texture of vocal embroidery, and has always been a favorite number on the concert stage.
From The Standard Operas (12th edition) Their Plots, Their Music, and Their Composers by George P. (George Putnam) Upton
It joins other millipedes found in the state, including the world’s leggiest creature on record — aptly named Illacme plenipes, Latin for “in highest fulfillment of feet” with 750 limbs.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 26, 2023
The leggiest species on the planet is but one such discovery.
From Scientific American ● Dec. 17, 2021
But the newfound species, Eumilipes persephone—named after Persephone, the daughter of Zeus who was taken by Hades to the underworld—is the leggiest known animal on the planet.
From Scientific American ● Dec. 17, 2021
The kink is that Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol opened in Christmas of 2011 and ended up with one of the leggiest runs ever.
From Forbes ● Jul. 28, 2015
Ms. Tayeh’s, by far the flashiest and most convulsive — with the leggiest extensions — resembled a good routine on “So You Think You Can Dance,” for which she has often choreographed.
From New York Times ● Feb. 12, 2015
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
