Shake a leg

Posted by Patricia on September 23, 2002

In Reply to: Shake a leg posted by Ed Stansell on September 20, 2002

I agree, whatever the origin or the context, "shake a leg" means to "get a move on", "hurry it up", whether it's to get out of bed or to get something else done.

: Your origin on this refers to showing a leg to prove your awake. That may be so, but I doubt it has any connection with "shake a leg". I think a more reasonable explanation of this would be to run. We do sort of shake our legs when we run. In the US, it means to hurry, or make it snappy.
: ES