spindle-shanked, a.
[Cf. prec.]
1. Having long and slender legs; spindle-legged. (Usu. with contemptuous force.) a. Of persons or animals.
| c 1600 Timon ii. i. (1842) 25, I did reject..Demetrius Cause he was spindleshankt. 1692 Lond. Gaz. No. 2787/4 Went away from his Master.., one Cæsar Rammer,..aged about 14,..small of growth, and spindle-shank'd. 1713 Steele Guardian No. 97, Her lawyer..is a little, rivelled, spindle⁓shanked gentleman. 1754 ? Fielding Fathers ii. i, I will neither marry my daughter to a spindle shanked beau, nor my son to a rampant woman of quality. 1800 Sporting Mag. XV. 107 The poor, slight, weedy, spindle-shanked stock of brood mares. 1837 Creevey in C. Papers (1904) II. 326 A chattering, capering, spindle-shanked gaby. 1863 Blackw. Mag. Sept. 276 The spindleshanked son of the notary Arouet. |
b. Of articles of furniture.
| 1853 R. S. Surtees Sponge's Sp. Tour (1893) 135 An old spindle-shanked sideboard, with very little middle. |
2. Of legs: Long and thin.
| 1664 Power Exp. Philos. i. 17 Such prodigiously little spindle-shank'd leggs. |