There was the following sentence in the New York Times (August 16) article under the title, “Where's the justice at justice?”:
Attorney General Eric Holder said in May that “no reporter who is doing his job is going to go to jail,” trying to show some leg and signal that his intention is benign, merely to put pressure on (former C.I.A. agent) Jeffrey Sterling so that he will plead guilty before his trial.
OED carries the word, “leg show,” but not “show leg(s)." CED carries neither “leg show” nor “show leg.”
However, a definition at WordReference.com says
The phrase "show some leg" means to reveal some skin, usually as an inducement to get someone to do something, or to make yourself more attractive.
and one at www.englishforums.com says
Show some leg--literally, to expose your legs to view. Thus, to tempt sexually or to flirt or to seek attention. ...
GoogleNgram shows “show leg” in an almost insignificant currency level (0.0000000590% in 2007).
I know "show a leg" means to get up, but what does “show some (a little) leg” mean ? Does it mean to tempt a desired reaction from the other, or to reveal one’s real intention? Is it a common phrase?