hind leg
14
1.0
- noun
:
pata trasera
- Well, she survived the operation, but still hasn't moved her hind legs.
He he grabs the piglet by her hind legs and slams her head first into the ground.
- He he grabs the piglet by her hind legs and slams her head first into the ground.
- He has no curls to him and I told my daughter we don't bought a bootleg poodle and he won't stay off of his hind legs.
Examples
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Alongside the apatosaurs, the smaller hadrosaurs stood on their hind legs to get at foliage.
Fiction book (1990) -
The hind legs are going forward, which is not the direction they need to be coming in.
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The dog lifted its hind leg when the water was turned on.
Academic text (1998) -
The horse got up on his hind legs and reared into the air.
Fiction book (1995) -
Brutus was on his hind legs, straining to see the top of the grill.
Fiction book (1990) -
One of the otter's hind legs had been crushed by the jaws of a trap.
Fiction book (1993) -
The White Arabians of Ali-Khazar rose on their hind legs and waltzed.
Fiction book (1990) -
The kangaroo kicked with its powerful hind leg to defend itself.
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After the accident, the dog struggled to stand on its hind legs.
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The rabbit hopped quickly using its strong hind legs to escape the predator.
Synonyms
1
3.2
A back leg on an animal that helps it walk or jump
A back leg of an animal often used for walking or jumping
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'either of the rear limbs of a four-legged animal' is directly and transparently composed from 'hind' (rear) + 'leg' (limb). This adjective+noun combination follows a straightforward compositional pattern found across languages, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
The compound hind leg is a simple picture: hind means 'back' and leg is the limb that pushes or supports the body, like a frog using its hind leg to jump. So today hind leg means 'one of the rear legs of a four-legged animal'.