leggy

adjective

leg·​gy ˈle-gē 

 also  ˈlā-

leggier; leggiest

1

a

: having very long legs

In high school in Wareham, Mass., Davis ran track. She was tall, leggy and fast.

—Anamaria Wilson

The best time to view the cranes is 30 minutes before and after sunrise, just before they leave to feed for the morning. The leggy birds generally return to the wildlife area before noon, where they will remain for the rest of the day.

—States News Service

b

: having long and attractive legs

… the person with the answers is a leggy brunette dressed slickly in black.

—Leon Wieseltier

c

: having many legs

Later, when other specialists scoured the same small area in California looking for these millipedes, they came back empty-handed. Part of the problem is that the leggy creatures are hard to see.

—Emily Sohn

2

: having long shoots or stems with little foliage : spindly

Both plants are somewhat leggy and therefore a bit awkward on their own but look just fine in a crowd.

—Tom Peace

Mahonias and nandinas often get leggy and bare at the bottom as they mature.

—Fred C. Galle

Seedlings become "leggy" if they don't get enough light. … The stems will stretch and grow weak if they are too far from the lights.

—Rita Buchanan

—used of a plant

legginess

ˈle-gē-nəs 

 also  ˈlā-

noun

Examples of leggy in a Sentence

The bush has gotten leggy and needs to be pruned.

Recent Examples on the Web

And, while each of these styles earned the spotlight in their own right, a leggy fall/winter 2024 is in the forecast. —Ciarra Lorren Zatorski, Vogue, 23 Sep. 2024

On September 21, Zendaya reunited with Timothée Chalamet and Austin Butler for a screening of Dune: Part Two, which apparently called for two leggy ensembles. —Jake Henry Smith, Glamour, 22 Sep. 2024

Trim back leggy growth by half, move the plant to a brighter location, and rotate the pot every week to more evenly distribute the light. —Megan Hughes, Better Homes & Gardens, 18 Sep. 2024

Ugly, leggy stems can be pruned to the ground, which will encourage a new flush of bushy growth. —Steve Bender, Southern Living, 11 Sep. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1776, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Kids Definition

leggy

adjective

leg·​gy ˈleg-ē 

1

: having unusually long legs

2

: having long and attractive legs

3

: spindly

a leggy plant