a. Having three legs, as a three-legged stool.

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  † Three-legged mare, a nickname for the gallows; three-legged race, a race run by couples, the right leg of one person being bound to the left leg of the other; † three-legged staff, a tripod for supporting surveying instruments, etc.

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1596.  Shaks., Tam. Shr., I. i. 64. To combe your noddle with a three-legg’d stoole.

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1685.  T. Brown, Advice Dr. Oates, 26. From Fear Of being mounted on a Three-legg’d-Mare.

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1694, 1834.  [see MARE1 2 a].

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1701.  Moxon, Math. Instr., 21. Three-Leg’d Staff, made with Joynts to shut together, and take off in the middle for the better carriage: to support Instruments for Astronomy, Surveying, etc.

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1764.  Maskelyne, in Phil. Trans., LIV. 350. The wooden three-legged stand, which supports the sector.

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1863.  W. C. Baldwin, Afr. Hunting, i. 3. Quill-driving was not my particular vocation, nor a three-legged stool the … range to which I was willing to restrict myself.

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1909.  Mission Field, July, 118. How the boys did enjoy the ‘three-legged’ race and the sack races!

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