"show a leg" meaning in English

See show a leg in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: En-au-show a leg.ogg Forms: shows a leg [present, singular, third-person], showing a leg [participle, present], showed a leg [past], shown a leg [participle, past]
Etymology: Supposedly originated in the 19th-century Royal Navy as a waking call. Head templates: {{en-verb|*|||shown a leg}} show a leg (third-person singular simple present shows a leg, present participle showing a leg, simple past showed a leg, past participle shown a leg)
  1. (idiomatic, nautical, chiefly imperative) To wake up and get out of bed. Wikipedia link: Royal Navy Tags: idiomatic, imperative Categories (topical): Nautical Related terms: shake a leg
    Sense id: en-show_a_leg-en-verb-Dtsf8nJO Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English predicates, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Topics: nautical, transport

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_text": "Supposedly originated in the 19th-century Royal Navy as a waking call.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "shows a leg",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "showing a leg",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "showed a leg",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "shown a leg",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*",
        "2": "",
        "3": "",
        "4": "shown a leg"
      },
      "expansion": "show a leg (third-person singular simple present shows a leg, present participle showing a leg, simple past showed a leg, past participle shown a leg)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English predicates",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Nautical",
          "orig": "en:Nautical",
          "parents": [
            "Transport",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Show a leg or you’re going to be late.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To wake up and get out of bed."
      ],
      "id": "en-show_a_leg-en-verb-Dtsf8nJO",
      "links": [
        [
          "nautical",
          "nautical"
        ],
        [
          "wake up",
          "wake up"
        ],
        [
          "bed",
          "bed"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, nautical, chiefly imperative) To wake up and get out of bed."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "shake a leg"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "imperative"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "nautical",
        "transport"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Royal Navy"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-show a leg.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/f2/En-au-show_a_leg.ogg/En-au-show_a_leg.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/En-au-show_a_leg.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "show a leg"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "Supposedly originated in the 19th-century Royal Navy as a waking call.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "shows a leg",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "showing a leg",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "showed a leg",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "shown a leg",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*",
        "2": "",
        "3": "",
        "4": "shown a leg"
      },
      "expansion": "show a leg (third-person singular simple present shows a leg, present participle showing a leg, simple past showed a leg, past participle shown a leg)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "shake a leg"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English predicates",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "English verbs",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "en:Nautical"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Show a leg or you’re going to be late.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To wake up and get out of bed."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "nautical",
          "nautical"
        ],
        [
          "wake up",
          "wake up"
        ],
        [
          "bed",
          "bed"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, nautical, chiefly imperative) To wake up and get out of bed."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "imperative"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "nautical",
        "transport"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Royal Navy"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-show a leg.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/f2/En-au-show_a_leg.ogg/En-au-show_a_leg.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/En-au-show_a_leg.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "show a leg"
}

Download raw JSONL data for show a leg meaning in English (1.6kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-02-08 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-02-02 using wiktextract (f90d964 and 9dbd323). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.