Dictionary

short-legged en · ADJ

Etymology

From short + legged.

Meanings

1. Having short legs, particularly in proportion to one's body.
   • A droll man with a quiet voice and a talent for mimicking almost anyone with tart accuracy, he had the mate down to a fault already, that officer's shortlegged strut, his mad glare and, at a much—reduced volume to avoid detection, his bullhorn bellow. 2011, Derek Lundy, The Way of a Ship: A Square-Rigger Voyage in the Last Days of Sail, page 56:
   • The two dogs were beagles, shortlegged and frantic, leaping in and out of the chest-high fall of snow, or plowing their noses through it and furrowing snow up and past their ears, their tails spinning, then looking up with white brows and whiskers, gnomic and hoary-faced as little old men. 2010, Cormac McCarthy, The Orchard Keeper, page 135:
   • However, small, deep-bodied, shortlegged cattle have been known in Ireland since Celtic times. 1995, Marleen Felius, Cattle Breeds: An Encyclopedia:

Forms

Deriveds

short-leggedness

Translations (14)

fi lyhytjalkainen (having short legs) · ga gearrchosach (having short legs) · pl krótkonogi (having short legs) · fi persjalkainen (having short legs) · el μικροσκελής (having short legs) · ca camacurt (having short legs) · grc μικροσκελής (having short legs) · tr bacaksız (having short legs) · de kurzbeinig (having short legs) · da kortbenet (having short legs) · ota باجاقسز (having short legs) · es paticorto (having short legs) · ru коротконо́гий (having short legs) · fr court sur pattes (having short legs)