on one's last legs

on one's last legs

1. (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.

2. (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.