not have a leg to stand on

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not have a leg to stand on

1. (idiomatic) To lack support, as in an argument, debate, or negotiation.
   • 1857, Charles Dickens, chapter 8, in Little Dorrit, volume 2:

     ‘You see?’ said Mrs Gowan, turning the palms of her hands towards Mr Meagles, as if she were Justice herself, representing to him that he had better confess, for he had not a leg to stand on.

   • 1910, Edith Wharton, “Afterward”, in Tales of Men and Ghosts:

     "But Mr. Elwell's lawyers apparently did not take your view, since I suppose the suit was withdrawn by their advice." "Oh, yes, they knew he hadn't a leg to stand on."

   • 1931, E. F. Benson, chapter 4, in Mapp and Lucia:

     It was borne in upon Elizabeth that she hadn't got a leg to stand upon and she sat down.

   • 2003 October 3, Charlie LeDuff, Dean E. Murphy, “The California Recall: Sexual Accusations Prompt an Apology By Schwarzenegger”, in New York Times‎^[1]:

     If his word and image are consistently proven to be false, he doesn't have a leg to stand on.

• Almost always used in the negative, although rare affirmative usages can found, as in:

• 1910, Gilbert Keith Chesterton, chapter 17, in What's Wrong With The World:

  It is only with great difficulty that a modem scientific sociologist can be got to see that any old method has a leg to stand on.

• 1998 December 7, Jane Gross, “Suit Says Employer's Refusal to Pay Is Form of Bias”, in New York Times‎^[2], retrieved 18 June 2014:

  "Now we have a leg to stand on," said Mark G. Sokoloff, one of Ms. Saks' lawyers.

• on one's last legs