deadleg

• dead-leg, dead leg

dead +‎ leg

deadleg (plural deadlegs)

1. A lazy or weak person.
   • 1961, Shelagh Delaney, The Lion in Love: A Play, page 83:

     I was a bit of a deadleg in them days. You know, footloose and inclined to be rather flirtatious with the ladies.

   • 1966, Maurice Procter, His weight in gold, page 56:

     "I can tell you now, he's a no-good," said the Liverpool D.C.I. "His form is nothing to speak of, but he's the errand lad and head butterer-up for a deadleg called Pete Garside.

   • 1987, R. Calam, C. Franchi, Child Abuse and Its Consequences, →ISBN, page 76:

     For the next year Liz lived alone with Lindy, occasionally consorting with 'more deadlegs', one of whom bruised Lindy when he had been drinking.

2. An isolated section of pipeline that does not usually carry a flow.
   • 1996, K. Carr-Brion, J. R. P. Clarke, Sampling Systems for Process Analysers, →ISBN, page 182:

     There should be minimum deadleg between the valve and main process unit and, if possible, means for cleaning the deadleg.

   • 2015, Jonathan Waldman, Rust: The Longest War, →ISBN, page 246:

     The pig trap was just under forty feet long, but the final six-foot section was a deadleg.

   • 2018, Wayne P. Olson, Sterilization of Drugs and Devices: Technologies for the 21st Century, →ISBN:

     Since air is denser than steam at sterilization temperatures, air will be displaced downward in the deadleg.

3. Alternative form of dead leg (injury to the upper thigh)
   • 1992, Bomb, page 66:

     Gordon Biggs, on his way to biology, his favorite class, turns a corner and is immediately seized and stunned by a deadleg to the thigh, (judicious application of the knee to the fleshy part of the upper leg, resulting in prolonged numbness, hence the term 'deadleg').

4. (sports) A movement in which the hips and knees are kept straight and stiff and the ankle is flexed.
   • 2017, Clive Brewer, Athletic Movement Skills: Training for Sports Performance, →ISBN, page 202:

     Deadleg drills can also be performed by having one leg serve as the dealeg (hips and knees stiff, ankles dorsiflexed, active ground contact with the foot and the heel adhering o the credit card rule) and having the opposite leg perform other drills, such as A-skips, B-skips or straight-leg skips.

5. (shipping) A vehicle that is traveling on a leg of its route in which it does not carry any cargo.
   • 1984, Gavin Grant Maasdorp, Transport Policies and Economic Development in Southern Africa:

     Companies can transport on a nationwide basis but usually only carry their products out and have a deadleg on the return trip, e.g., the sugar distributors.

   • 2001, Andrew Gurr, A Little Piece of England, page 79:

     Our convoy appeared as a huge centipede, winding its way uphill that had acquired various deadlegs at random.

deadleg (third-person singular simple present deadlegs, present participle deadlegging, simple past and past participle deadlegged)

1. (transitive) To knee someone in the thigh.

• Dictionary of Contemporary Slang

• deadleg on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• deagled