Word.ws English Dictionary

show a leg

show a leg verb: to wake up and get out of bed.

Verb

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, imperative) To wake up and get out of bed.
    • Show a leg or you’re going to be late.

Forms of show a leg

third-person singular presentshows a leg
present participleshowing a leg
pastshowed a leg
past participleshown a leg

Origin of show a leg

Supposedly originated in the 19th-century Royal Navy as a waking call.

Questions about show a leg

What does show a leg mean?
Show a leg means to wake up and get out of bed.
What part of speech is show a leg?
Show a leg is a verb.
What is the past tense of show a leg?
The past tense of show a leg is showed a leg.

Words near show a leg in the dictionary

  1. Shovlin
  2. Shovlins
  3. Shovuos
  4. show
  5. show a clean pair of heels
  6. show a leg
  7. show a little ginger
  8. show and share
  9. show and tell
  10. show and tells
  11. show ankle

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: show 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-show a leg.ogg.

Cite this entry: “show a leg.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/show_a_leg. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.