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Glite Dictionary
hind leg

hind leg

14 1.0
A back leg on a four-legged animal that helps it walk or jump
  • 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.

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Examples

  • 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.

    Tabula Rasa (2018)

  • 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.

  • After the accident, the dog struggled to stand on its hind legs.

  • The rabbit hopped quickly using its strong hind legs to escape the predator.

Synonyms

hind limb
vshind leg
1 3.2

A back leg on an animal that helps it walk or jump

focuses on the limb at the back specifically of four-legged animals
hindlimb
vshind leg
  • Specialized
4.9

A back leg of an animal often used for walking or jumping

is the same idea but used specifically for the limb at the rear of four-legged animals

Surface Forms

hind leg singular
hind legs plural

Morphology

hind + leg

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'.