or leg bail and land security, subs. phr. (common).—Escape from custody. Fr. lever le pied. See BAIL.
1767. RAY, Proverbs [BOHN (1893), 55]. He has given him LEG-BAIL; i.e., decamped.
1774. FERGUSON, Poems, ii. 10. They TOOK LEG-BAIL and ran awa’.
1775. J. ADAIR, The History of the American Indians, 277. I had concluded to use no chivalry, but GIVE THEM LEG-BAIL instead of it, by leaving my baggage-horses, making for a deep swamp.
1816. SCOTT, The Antiquary, ch. XXXIX. I wad gie them LEG-BAIL to a certainty.
1823. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd ed.), s.v. LEG. LEG-BAIL AND LAND SECURITY, to run away.
1823. W. T. MONCRIEFF, Tom and Jerry, ii. 4. ’Tis my painful duty to commit you, unless you can find good bail. Tom. We’ll give you LEG BAIL.
1838. DICKENS, Oliver Twist, ch. XIX. He has us now if he could give us LEG-BAIL again.
1848. MARRYAT, The Poacher, xxii. GIVEN THEM LEG-BAIL, I swear.
1870. WILKIE COLLINS, Man and Wife (in Cassell’s Magazine, p. 309). ‘Ow! ow! that’s bad. And the bit husband-creature danglin’ at her petticoat’s tail one day, and awa’ wi’ the sunrise next mornin’—have they baith taken LEG-BAIL together?’
