hogleg

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English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From hog +‎ leg.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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hogleg (plural hoglegs)

  1. (US, slang) Any large-caliber handgun, typically with a long barrel.
    • 1940, Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely, Penguin, published 2010, page 228:
      A plain-clothes man with his coat off and his hog's leg looking like a fire plug against his ribs took one eye off his evening paper […].
    • 1975, Marty Robbins, Shotgun Rider:
      Well I been a-ridin' shotgun on the Houston-Dallas stage / I got me a sawed-off hogleg, twenty is the number gauge / I'd shoot anybody, that would try to stop this ride / A lot of outlaws tried it, a lot of outlaws died.