legal beagle
1
8.1
- noun
- /ˈliːɡəl ˈbiːɡəl/
- Slang
:
abogado experto
Examples
-
Amanda, my love, why do you stay married to a legal beagle with 10 thumbs?
-
With delays, requests for documents, filing motions and countermotions, the legal beagles were having a field day.
Fiction book (1993) -
My friend hired a legal beagle to help with his contract negotiations.
-
As a legal beagle, she specializes in corporate law and intellectual property.
-
Whenever I need legal advice, I turn to my legal beagle for reliable guidance.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
A person who gives legal advice and represents people in court
∞
4.6
A lawyer who gives legal advice and represents people in court
713
4.3
A lawyer who speaks for someone in court
36
3.6
A person who represents people in court during trials
21
4.0
A person who knows a lot about law and gives advice
20
6.8
A lawyer who represents people in court cases
17
7.1
A person who knows a lot about law, like a judge or law teacher
16
7.5
A lawyer who speaks for people in higher courts in Britain and Canada
8
9.8
An informal short word for a lawyer who gives legal advice and represents people in court
A person who gives legal advice and handles legal documents, often in Scotland
A person who knows a lot about law and legal ideas
How Skilled
Surface Forms
Morphology
legal + beagle
Although 'legal' clearly relates to law, 'beagle' is a dog breed and offers no obvious or conventional clue to 'skilled lawyer' for a learner; the phrase is informal, playful slang using a figurative nickname. The overall meaning is an idiomatic metaphorical extension that is not directly derivable from the parts, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents would likely not infer the intended sense without prior exposure.
Etymology
Legal beagle may come from the picture of a beagle, a dog that sniffs out hidden things and clues, like someone who finds problems in papers or cases. That's why people use it jokingly to mean 'a skilled lawyer' or 'legal expert'.