Dictionary

foreleg en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈfɔrˌlɛɡ/ (US)
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *per- Proto-Indo-European *preh₂-der. Proto-Indo-European *pr̥h₂éy Proto-Germanic *furai Proto-Germanic *furai- Proto-West Germanic *forē- Old English fore- Middle English fore- English fore- English leg English foreleg From fore- + leg.

Meanings

1. Either of the two legs towards the front of a four-legged animal such as a horse, or towards the front of a many-legged animal such as most insects, or of a piece of furniture, etc.
   • For example, the foreleg of the mole is admirably suited for digging underground. A similar modification is found in an entirely different group of the animal kingdom, namely, in the mole cricket[…] In both of these cases the adaptation is the more obvious, because, while the leg of the mole is formed on the same general plan as that of other vertebrates, and the leg of the mole cricket has the same fundamental structure as that of other insects, yet in both cases the details of structure and the general proportions have been so altered, that the leg is fitted for entirely different purposes from that to which the legs of other vertebrates and of other insects are put. 1903, Thomas Hunt Morgan, Evolution and adaptation:
   • I once saw two males fighting together; each had a fore-leg laid across the neck of the other, and the rostrum bent quite in an attitude of defiance, and looking most ridiculous. 1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 277:
   • Clover made a sort of wall round them with her great foreleg[…] 1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Animal Farm […], London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, →OCLC:

Forms

Deriveds

forelegged

Synonyms

forelimb

Translations (29)

de Vorderlauf (either of the two legs towards the front of a four-legged animal) · ta முன்னங்கால் (either of the two legs towards the front of a four-legged animal) · ko 앞발 (either of the two legs towards the front of a four-legged animal) · nn forbein (either of the two legs towards the front of a four-legged animal) · ko 앞다리 (either of the two legs towards the front of a four-legged animal) · oc pata avant (either of the two legs towards the front of a four-legged animal) · ru пере́дняя ла́па (either of the two legs towards the front of a four-legged animal) · nb forbein (either of the two legs towards the front of a four-legged animal) · eo antaŭ-kruro (either of the two legs towards the front of a four-legged animal) · fr patte de devant (either of the two legs towards the front of a four-legged animal) · cmn 前腳 /前脚 (either of the two legs towards the front of a four-legged animal) · sv framben (either of the two legs towards the front of a four-legged animal) · tpi han (either of the two legs towards the front of a four-legged animal) · da forben (either of the two legs towards the front of a four-legged animal) · te ముంగాలు (either of the two legs towards the front of a four-legged animal) · cmn 前肢 (either of the two legs towards the front of a four-legged animal) · cmn 前腿 (either of the two legs towards the front of a four-legged animal) · izh etujalka (either of the two legs towards the front of a four-legged animal) · egy x*p:S-F24 (either of the two legs towards the front of a four-legged animal) · fi etujalka (either of the two legs towards the front of a four-legged animal) · ru пере́дняя нога́ (either of the two legs towards the front of a four-legged animal) · nn frambein (either of the two legs towards the front of a four-legged animal) · izh esijalka (either of the two legs towards the front of a four-legged animal) · de Vorderbein (either of the two legs towards the front of a four-legged animal) · oc pata de davant (either of the two legs towards the front of a four-legged animal) · fr patte avant (either of the two legs towards the front of a four-legged animal) · hu mellső láb (either of the two legs towards the front of a four-legged animal) · ja 前肢 (either of the two legs towards the front of a four-legged animal) · ja 前脚 (either of the two legs towards the front of a four-legged animal)