on one's last legs
English
Prepositional phrase
on one's last legs
- (idiomatic) About to die.
- 1824, Sir Walter Scott, St. Ronan's Well, ch. 6:
- [A] friend who assists me with a view to future profit . . . lies like the fox's scent when on his last legs, increasing every moment.
- 1913, Jack London, The Valley of the Moon, ch. 6:
- He is on his last legs. His kidneys are 'most gone. Remember, 'tis I must bury him.
- 1824, Sir Walter Scott, St. Ronan's Well, ch. 6:
- (idiomatic, by extension) About to lose viability or become defunct.
- 1905, Robert Louis Stevenson, "The Beach of Falesa" in Island Nights' Entertainments:
- [T]he wood was main dark, but had a kind of a low glow in it like a fire on its last legs.
- 1905, Robert Louis Stevenson, "The Beach of Falesa" in Island Nights' Entertainments:
Translations
about to die
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