scab
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: biology
botany
medicine
natural-sciences
pathology
phytopathology
sciences
Etymology: From Middle English scabb, scabbe (also as shabbe, schabbe > English shab), from Old English sċeabb and Old Norse skabb, both from Proto-Germanic *skabbaz (“scab, scabies”), from Proto-Indo-European *skabʰ- (“to cut, split, carve, shape”). Doublet of shab. Cognate with German Schabe (“scabies”), Danish skab (“scab, scabies”), Swedish skabb (“scab, scabies”), Latin scabies (“scab, itch, mange”). Related also to Old English scafan (“to scrape, shave”), Latin scabere (“to scratch”), English shabby.
Inflected forms:
form: scabs
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: scabs
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: scabbing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: scabbed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: scabbed
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: An incrustation over a sore, wound, vesicle, or pustule, formed during healing.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: The scabies.
pos: noun
tags: colloquial
countable
obsolete
uncountable
gloss: The mange, especially when it appears on sheep.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: Scab was the terror of the sheep farmer, and the peril of his calling.
gloss: Any of several different diseases of potatoes producing pits and other damage on their surface, caused by streptomyces bacteria (but formerly believed to be caused by a fungus).
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
gloss: Common scab, a relatively harmless variety of scab (potato disease) caused by Streptomyces scabies.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: Any one of various more or less destructive fungal diseases that attack cultivated plants, forming dark-colored crustlike spots.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: A slight irregular protuberance which defaces the surface of a casting, caused by the breaking away of a part of the mold.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: A mean, dirty, paltry fellow.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: Out, scab!
I would make thee the / loathsomest scab in Greece.
gloss: A worker who acts against trade union policies; any picket crosser (strikebreaker), and especially one with devotion to union busting.
pos: noun
tags: countable
derogatory
slang
uncountable
examples: When a scab comes down the street, men turn their backs and angels weep in heaven, and the devil shuts the gates of hell to keep him out.
gloss: To become covered by a scab or scabs.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
gloss: To form into scabs and be shed, as damaged or diseased skin.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: 1734, Royal Society of London, The Philosophical Transactions (1719 - 1733) Abridged, Volume 7, page 631,
Thoſe Puſtules aroſe, maturated, and ſcabbed off, intirely like the true Pox.
Trev walked over and leaned down, dropping a tender kiss on her forehead where the skin was raw and scabbing from the cut.
The bark that wasn′t already scabbed off was peppered with beetle holes.
gloss: To remove part of a surface (from).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: The beds shall be scabbed off to give a solid bearing, no pinning shall be admitted between the backing and the face stones and there shall be a good square joint not exceeding one inch in width, and the face stone shall be scabbed off to allow this.
gloss: To act as a strikebreaker.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: Don't scab for the bosses / Don't listen to their lies / Us poor folks haven't got a chance / Unless we organize.
Nobody desires to scab, to give most for least. The ambition of every individual is quite the opposite, to give least for most; and, as a result, living in a tooth-and-nail society, battle royal is waged by the ambitious individuals.
gloss: To beg (for), to cadge or bum.
pos: verb
tags: Australia
New-Zealand
UK
informal
transitive
examples: I scabbed some money off a friend.
2004, Niven Govinden, We are the New Romantics, Bloomsbury Publishing, UK, page 143,
Finding a spot in a covered seating area that was more bus shelter than tourist-friendly, I unravelled a mother of a joint I′d scabbed off the garçon.
2006, Linda Jaivin, The Infernal Optimist, 2010, HarperCollins Australia, unnumbered page,
I′d already used up me mobile credit. I was using a normal phone card, what I got from Hamid, what got it from a church lady what helped the refugees. I didn′t like scabbing from the asylums, but they did get a lotta phone cards.
I′ve told Fred we can see a movie this weekend, but that just seems like a money-wasting activity. And I can′t keep scabbing off my best friend.
Related words: scabies
scabrous
Derived words: antiscab
apple scab
crown scab
powdery scab
scabbery
scabbish
scabby
scab duty
scabland
scabless
scablike
scab union
scabwort
Translations: