hang a leg
hang a leg verb: to hesitate; to hang back.
Verb
hang a leg (third-person singular simple present hangs a leg, present participle hanging a leg, simple past and past participle hung a leg)
- To hesitate; to hang back.
- You have your hands on thousands, you fools, and you hang a leg! You'd be as rich as kings if you could find it, and you know it's here, and you stand there skulking.1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC
Forms of hang a leg
| third-person singular present | hangs a leg |
|---|---|
| present participle | hanging a leg |
| past participle | hung a leg |
| past | hung a leg |
Questions about hang a leg
- What does hang a leg mean?
- Hang a leg means to hesitate; to hang back.
- What part of speech is hang a leg?
- Hang a leg is a verb.
- What is the past tense of hang a leg?
- The past tense of hang a leg is hung a leg.
Words near hang a leg in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: hang a leg (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-hang a leg.ogg.
Cite this entry: “hang a leg.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hang_a_leg. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.