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ˈblack-leg, -legs, n.
Also blackleg.
1. a. A disease in cattle and sheep which affects the legs. (Better black-legs.)
a1722Lisle Observ. Husb. (1757) 347 They have a distemper in Leicestershire frequent among the calves, which in that country they call the black-legs..It is a white jelly settling in their legs, from whence it has its name of black-legs. 1884Illustr. Sydney News 26 Aug. 15/2 A cattle disease, known as blackleg, is stated to have killed a number of cattle in the Mount Alexander district.
b. Any of various diseases that attack vegetables (see quots.).
1880Encycl. Brit. XII. 281/1 To prevent the cauliflowers from getting the disease of ‘black legs’. 1916B. D. Jackson Gloss. Bot. Terms (ed. 3) 52/1 Black Leg, a bacterial disease of potatoes due to Bacillus phytophthorus. 1918Board Agric. & Fisheries Leaflet No. 23. 17 Diseases of the Potato..Black-Leg or Black-Stalk Rot. 1956Nature 10 Mar. 465/2 Phoma betae..the cause of black leg in sugar beet.
2. A turf swindler; also, a swindler in other species of gambling. (Formerly also black-legs.) [As in other slang expressions, the origin of the name is lost: of the various guesses current none seem worth notice.]
1771B. Parsons Newmarket II. 163 The frequenters of the Turf, and numberless words of theirs are exotics everywhere else; then how should we have been told of black-legs, and of town-tops..taken-in, beat-hollow, etc. 1774R. Cumberland Note of Hand ii. i, Gentlemen of the turf; what sort of gentlemen are they? Francis. These fellows are gamblers, black-legs, sharpers. 1812Examiner 14 Sept. 591/1 Any blackleg or pickpocket in the land. 1813Ibid. 17 May 319/1, I was..posted as a black-legs. 1857Thackeray Eng. Hum. v. (1858) 245 You see noblemen and black-legs bawling and betting in the Cockpit.
3. a. A local name of opprobrium for a workman willing to work for a master whose men are on strike. (Also called black-neb.) Now gen.
1865Pall Mall G. 29 Oct. 7 If the timber merchants persist in putting on ‘blacklegs,’ a serious disturbance will ensue. 1875R. J. Hinton Eng. Rad. Leaders iv. xix. 333 The police were used to watch the strikers or to protect the blacklegs, as those are called who work outside the Union movement. 1890W. Booth In Darkest England i. iv. 34 Men hungering to death..are the materials from which ‘black⁓legs’ are made.
b. A person who fails or refuses to join his fellows in combination for a given purpose, or breaks the rules of a particular trade or group.
1889Pall Mall Gaz. 21 Nov. 5/1 The question of the preparation of a list of master-baker ‘blacklegs’ was also touched upon. These men are selling bread at 4½d. the quartern, and at even a lower rate. 1913‘A. R. Hope’ Half & Half 275 We abused him as a ‘blackleg’ because his industry set too high a standard to the rest. 1955Times 3 Aug. 9/4 Any milkman delivering outside his boundaries would be regarded as ‘a blackleg’ (their own expression). 1971Times 28 Jan. 7/8 The clause was known as the black⁓legs' charter.
c. attrib. or as adj.
1890Daily News 8 Sept. 6/1 There were hundreds of men..being subjected to blackleg competition. 1894Ibid. 31 May 7/5 There were two ‘blackleg’ cabs discovered on the rank. 1955Times 3 June 6/6 Members of the Amalgamated Engineering Union in the Swindon Railway Works have been recommended by their district committee not to do any ‘blackleg’ work such as repairing and servicing engines and rolling stock.
4. Sc. = blackfoot, a match-maker. rare.
Hence (in sense 2) black-ˈleggery, blackˈlegism, the profession or practice of a black-leg.
1832Maginn in Blackw. Mag. XXXII. 427 From following any profession save the Army, the Navy, Black-apronry, and Black-leggery. 1882Pall Mall G. 9 Dec. 20 The two baronets resemble each other only in cowardice, spite, and blackleggery. 1845Blackw. Mag. LVIII. 204 There was a fair amount of black-legism on both occasions. |