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/ˈlɛɡˌmæn/ · noun
(originally US) A person hired to carry out errands or (often) menial tasks, frequently requiring travel from place to place; an errand boy or errand girl, a runner..
During the nine-month Great Lakes shipping season, the ore hogs—shovelers, "larry" car weighers, bulldozer operators, car pushers and "leg" men—unite in this miracle of supply that stock-piles enough iron ore to last through the winter. The leg man on a Hulett iron-ore unloader must possess a special blend of brawn, brains and a "go for broke" attitude. He must also be conscious of the safety of fellow workers below him as he deftly maneuvers a 75-ton vertical ramrod and iron-jawed grab bucket.
[W]ell, anyway, he sent a chap who acts as his confidential ‘leg-man’ and ‘Man Friday’.
Guillam was boss and legman, and twice a day he dropped the tapes on the Berne residency, using a parked car as a letter-box.
A large ship was discharging LASH (lighter aboard ship) barges at its aft end. [...] The crane broke down and a repairman was called. One legman descended from his post on a small raised platform to the deck next to the crane. Once repaired, the crane operator sounded a warning siren. Thinking all was clear, he started the crane toward the aft. The legman next to the crane ran aft and attempted to climb a small ladder next to his post. He was caught between the ladder and the crane, suffering multiple injuries.
Once in Hollywood he [Andrew J. Fenady] became a legman for Paul Coates, which led to writing and producing Coates' controversial television series, Confidential File, winner of three Emmy awards.
He [Walter Lippmann] studied at Harvard with [George] Santayana, took tea with William James, worked as a legman for Lincoln Steffens, debated socialism with [George] Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells, was in Belgium when the Germans invaded and at the House of Commons when Britain declared war in 1914.
Their targets included kings and commoners, civilians and soldiers, military recruits and senior commanders, political legmen and party chairmen, businessmen and academicians, journalists and belletrists—and ultimately a train of victims' families: husbands, wives, and children.
[page 136] This was my abrupt introduction to the system by which most of the live news is handled for the New York evening newspapers [...] Its continued use has bred up two distinct and separate types of news-specialists—the leg man, who gets the story, but rarely writes it; and the rewrite man, who writes the story but rarely gets it. [...] [page 140] City editors rail against these news combines, but it was the instinct of self-preservation that long ago drove the leg men into tight and fast organizations.
Use legman when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.
Legman means (originally US) A person hired to carry out errands or (often) menial tasks, frequently requiring travel from place to place; an errand boy or errand girl, a runner..
Common synonyms include gofer.
The opposite depends on the specific sense.
During the nine-month Great Lakes shipping season, the ore hogs—shovelers, "larry" car weighers, bulldozer operators, car pushers and "leg" men—unite in this miracle of supply that stock-piles enough iron ore to last through the winter. The leg man on a Hulett iron-ore unloader must possess a special blend of brawn, brains and a "go for broke" attitude. He must also be conscious of the safety of fellow workers below him as he deftly maneuvers a 75-ton vertical ramrod and iron-jawed grab bucket.
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