leg-breakern.1
/ˈlɛɡˌbreɪkə/, U.S. /ˈlɛɡˌbreɪkər/ 1. Originally U.S.
a. Something which breaks or is likely to break a person's or animal's leg or legs; a hazard or danger.
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1828 Yankee & Boston Lit. Gaz. 12 Mar. 84 A congregation of sloughs, pit-falls, man-traps, ditches, slides, slippers and leg-breakers.
1883 J. T. Scharf Hist. St. Louis City & County I. 809/1 The [fire] company also had..one..[reel].., the hind wheels of which were nine feet in diameter.., called the ‘Legbreaker’.
1916 Fur News Aug. 45/2 Their [sc. woodchucks'] digging around in the fields is the worst nuisance..; it makes regular leg-breakers for horses and other stock to step into.
1960 N. Walford tr. K. Bjarnhof Good Light iv. 55 You get to a cellar-trap and then two gutters. Keep well to the left there, for it's a leg-breaker.
1998 M. Walker Ital. Racing Motorcycles xiv. 201/3 (caption) Plug spanner inserted in top of riders boot—a fairly common sight in those days [i.e. 1948], but a potential leg-breaker in the event of a crash.
2015 Sun (Nexis) 2 Jan. (Sport section) 64 Swansea boss Monk blasted: ‘That was a leg-breaker, that's how reckless that tackle was’.
b. Originally Criminals' slang. A hired thug, an enforcer.
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society > authority > subjection > obedience > compulsion > [noun] > one who compels > by violence or intimidation
leg-breaker1883
enforcer1934
1883 Chronicle (Univ. Michigan) 20 Jan. 28/1 What do I want it [sc. a dollar bill] changed for!.. I want it to hire a pair of your dag-goned leg-breakers, to kill my enemy.
1943 Wisconsin State Jrnl. 22 Dec. 6/3 Lepke was a casual murderer, leg-breaker, and racketeer.
1973 V. Teresa & T. C. Renner My Life in Mafia xvi. 166 Punchy was a legbreaker for the longshoreman's union.
2015 Washington Post (Nexis) 19 Apr. (Business section) f1 Although payday loans are expensive and sometimes prone to abuse, that option certainly seems better than owing a leg-breaker with a baseball bat.
2. Cricket. = leg break n. Now rare.
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society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > cricket > bowling > [noun] > a ball bowled > types of delivery or ball
full toss1826
long hop1830
twister1832
bail ball1833
bailer1833
grubber1837
slow ball1838
wide1838
ground ball1839
shooter1843
slower ball1846
twiddler1847
creeper1848
lob1851
sneak1851
sneaker1851
slow1854
bumper1855
teaser1856
daisy-cutter1857
popper1857
yorker1861
sharpshooter1863
headball1866
screwball1866
underhand1866
skimmerc1868
grub1870
ramrod1870
raymonder1870
round-armer1871
grass cutter1876
short pitch1877
leg break1878
lob ball1880
off-break1883
donkey-drop1888
tice1888
fast break1889
leg-breaker1892
kicker1894
spinner1895
wrong 'un1897
googly1903
fizzer1904
dolly1906
short ball1911
wrong 'un1911
bosie1912
bouncer1913
flyer1913
percher1913
finger-spinner1920
inswinger1920
outswinger1920
swinger1920
off-spinner1924
away swinger1925
Chinaman1929
overspinner1930
tweaker1938
riser1944
leg-cutter1949
seamer1952
leggy1954
off-cutter1955
squatter1955
flipper1959
lifter1959
cutter1960
beamer1961
loosener1962
doosra1999
1892 County Gentleman 20 Aug. 1121/3 It is less to the shooters and leg-breakers..than to straight balls varied as to pace and pitch..that we must look.
1904 Sheffield Daily Tel. 23 June 9/4 Llewellyn was beaten with a grand leg-breaker from Hearne.
1921 P. C. W. Trevor Cricket & Cricketers xx. 186 Reggie Schwarz could not bowl a leg-breaker; what he could bowl and what he did bowl was an off-breaker.
2002 Mirror (Nexis) 29 July 11 I field at square leg, bowl leg-breakers and end up breaking my leg.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, June 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
leg-breakern.2
/ˈlɛɡˌbreɪkə/, U.S. /ˈlɛɡˌbreɪkər/ A leg-break bowler.
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society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > cricket > cricketer > [noun] > bowler > types of bowler
slow bowler1823
fast bowler1828
bias bowler1854
round-arm1858
demon bowler1861
left-hander1864
chucker1882
lobster1889
slow1895
leg-breaker1904
speed merchant1913
leg-spinner1920
spin bowler1920
off-spinner1924
quickie1934
tweaker1935
swerve-bowler1944
pace bowler1947
seam bowler1948
spinner1951
seamer1952
wrist-spinner1957
outswinger1958
swing bowler1958
quick1960
stock bowler1968
paceman1972
leggy1979
1904 Sat. Rev. 6 Feb. 166/1 It is curious to note that three out of the six bowlers are ‘leg-breakers’, though all differ in pace and method.
1956 A. R. Alston Test Comm. i. 13 Benaud, potentially a most dangerous leg-breaker.
1961 C. McCool Cricket is Game xiv. 138 I should like to have come into English cricket as a young leg-breaker. It would have been fun.
2011 Springvale Dandenong (Austral.) Leader (Nexis) 14 Dec. 59 Perera..is challenging Malvern leg-breaker Monto Perera for the mantle of Subbies' best slow bowler.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.11828n.21904- on the go
- on the grab
- on the grand pas
- on the grass
- on the greek calends
- on the green
- on the greet
- on the grey market
- on the gridiron
- on the grin
- on the grind
- on the ground
- on the ground of
- on the half-shell
- on the half-volley
- on the halfshell
- on the halfvolley
- on the halves
- on the hazard
- on the heels of
- on the high gig
- on the high grin
- on the high horse
- on the high jump
- on the high rope