2. Noun. (British obsolete) A man employed by the owners of a canal to push boats through narrow canal tunnels. The legger would lie on his back on a piece of wood on the boat with his feet reaching to the tunnel wall, and walk it along. This could be done by the boat's crew, but the canals employed men specifically for the task because they could do it faster and prevent a tunnel becoming a bottleneck for traffic. ¹
¹ Source: wiktionary.com
Definition of Legger
1. a bargeman who legs [n -S]
Lexicographical Neighbors of Legger
Literary usage of Legger
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. Excursions in Southern Africa, Including a History of the Cape Colony, an by Edward Delaval Hungerford Elers Napier (1849)
"A duty of four rix-dollars, six schellings, is paid on each legger, ... If a wine
boer living at Stellenbosch sends a legger of Cape wine in a waggon drawn ..."
2. History of South Africa Under the Administration of the Dutch East India by George McCall Theal (1897)
"lOd. a legger clear, and as much wheat as it needed at 10s. 8d. a muid, from
which was deducted the tithe, calculated upon the last census returns made. ..."
3. Records of the Cape Colony from February 1793 [to: Copied for the Cape by Cape of Good Hope (South Africa), Great Britain Public Record Office (1905)
"Qd. per legger. It has been generally stated and admitted by the wine ... 10s.
for a legger of wine; it would therefore appear that the production of the ..."
4. Tate's Modern Cambist: A Manual of Foreign Exchanges and Bullion, with the by William Tate, Harry Tucker Easton (1908)
"The legger holds 75 yeltes ef 2 old English wine gallons each. ... Arrack is
bought by the legger of 80 veltes; sold by the legger of 75 veltes. ..."
5. Tate's Modern Cambist: Forming a Manual of Foreign Exchanges by [William] Tate (1874)
"The legger holds 75 veltes of 2 old English wine gallons each. 1 legger is
therefore = 150 old gallons. Arrack is bought by the legger of 80 veltes; ..."
6. An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language by Walter William Skeat (1893)
"Of Scand. origin ; allied to Norweg. logg, the lowest part of a vessel, pi.
legger, and written ¡agge when used in composition ; Swed. lagg, ..."
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