hogleg

English

Alternative forms

• hog's leg

Etymology

From hog +‎ leg.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

hogleg (plural hoglegs)

1. (US, slang) Any large caliber handgun, typically with a long barrel.
   • 1940, Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely, Penguin, published 2010, page 228:

     A plain-clothes man with his coat off and his hog's leg looking like a fire plug against his ribs took one eye off his evening paper […].

   • 1975, Marty Robbins, Shotgun Rider:

     Well I been a-ridin' shotgun on the Houston-Dallas stage / I got me a sawed-off hogleg, twenty is the number gauge / I'd shoot anybody, that would try to stop this ride / A lot of outlaws tried it, a lot of outlaws died.