duck-legged

[ duhk-leg-idor, especially British, -legd ]

adjective

1. having legs that are unusually short:

   He crept up in a half-crouch that made him look duck-legged.

Word History and Origins

Origin of duck-legged¹

First recorded in 1640–50

Example Sentences

Duck-legged, short-waisted, such a dwarf she is That she must rise on tiptoe for a kiss.

From Project Gutenberg

What a wide-spread "liberal" laudation, for instance, there was about the famous definition of a Tory, in the Times,—and yet how soon it became its own "duck-legged drummer-boy," and all that!

From Project Gutenberg

These were an excessively duck-legged animal, with well-formed bodies, full chest, broad backs, yielding a close heavy fleece of medium quality of wool.

From Project Gutenberg

"That's just because you're a duck-legged snipe," answered Gid wrathfully.

From Project Gutenberg

Think of a stoutish, stooping, duck-legged man, with a mountainous back, strongly suggestive of a bag of grist under his shirt, and you have him.

From Project Gutenberg