legger

English

Noun

legger (plural leggers)

1. (informal) A bootlegger.
   • 1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep:

     Oh, you mean the ex-legger the eldest girl picked up and went and married.

2. (British, obsolete) 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.

See also

• thousand-legger

Anagrams

• eggler

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch legger. Equivalent to leggen +‎ -er. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term. Some of the senses actually arise from liggen, per Etymologiebank

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɛ.ɣər/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: leg‧ger
• Rhymes: -ɛɣər

Noun

legger m (plural leggers, diminutive leggertje n)

1. An animal that lays eggs, especially an egg-producing bird.
2. A ledger, register (book for keeping records and/or notes).
3. (textual criticism) A vorlage (edition of a text that is the immediate predecessor or one of the immediate predecessors of another edition).

Lombard

Etymology

Akin to Italian leggero, from Latin levis. Compare also French léger.

Adjective

legger

1. light (of weight)

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

legger m

1. indefinite plural of legg

Verb

legger

1. present active of legge

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology 1

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Alternative forms

• leggar

Noun

legger m

1. indefinite plural of legg

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Alternative forms

• legg

Verb

legger

1. (nonstandard) present of leggja