Dictionary

scabby en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• /ˈskæb.i/
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From Middle English scabby, scabbie, equivalent to scab + -y. Doublet of shabby.

Meanings

1. Affected with scabs; full of scabs.
   • Her wrizled skin, as rough as maple rind, So scabby was, that would have loath'd all womankind. 1590, Edmund Spenser, “(please specify the book)”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
2. Diseased with the scab (mange): mangy.
3. Having a blotched, uneven appearance.
4. Injured by the attachment of barnacles to the carapace of a shell.
5. Working against union policies, working to bust unions; in particular, being a scab (worker who crosses a union picket line).
   • The police, the governor, and the "scabby" Hearst Examiner "received a tremendous razzing," according to the Waterfront Worker, while all along the line of march "the workers on the sidelines cheered[…]" 1990, Bruce Nelson, Workers on the Waterfront: Seamen, Longshoremen, and Unionism in the 1930s, University of Illinois Press, →ISBN, page 166:
   • Hoochie's dad said, “All eight drivers are former 'scabby' employees who couldn't get hired by any reputable union trucking companies.” 2021 July 28, Michael F. McCarthy Colonel USAF (Ret), Memories of a Jane Street Boy: Family Influences and The Early Years, Dorrance Publishing, →ISBN, page 295:
   • [They're a] scabby right-to-work company and they don't care how much the sharp edges on that dust screw up a guy's lungs. 2016 August 31, David M. Caulfield, Ever a Fighter: The Adventures of Katherine Wilkinson, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN:
6. (Ireland, UK, slang) stingy; scrounging.
   • The chipper was a bit scabby on the vinegar today.
   • I lent you a fiver last week and you still haven’t paid me back, you scabby bastard!
   • You never bring you’re own pen but always ask to borrow mine, you scabby git!

Forms

Antonyms

smooth

Deriveds

scabby sheep · scabbiness · scabbily

Hypernyms

rough

Relateds

scruffy · scarious · sloughy · dandruffy · scurfy

Synonyms

scald · scabrate · roynish · scurvy · scalled · scabrid · scabby · scabrous · reef (affected with scabs)

Translations (29)

scn rugnusu (full of scabs) · mk крастав (full of scabs) · ru парши́вый (full of scabs) · ga scrathach (full of scabs) · ru шелуди́вый (full of scabs) · oc crostós (full of scabs) · ga carrach (full of scabs) · tr uyuz (diseased with scab) · hu rühes (diseased with scab) · pl świerzbowaty (diseased with scab) · cs strupatý (full of scabs) · hu varas (full of scabs) · la scaber (full of scabs) · cs strupovitý (full of scabs) · pt sarnento (full of scabs) · fi rupinen (full of scabs) · scn rugnusu (diseased with scab) · fi syyhyinen (diseased with scab) · bg покрит със струпеи (full of scabs) · tr uyuzlu (diseased with scab) · ga gearbach (full of scabs) · sv skabbig (full of scabs) · uk коро́стявий (diseased with scab) · pl pokryty strupami (full of scabs) · izh kärnäkäs (full of scabs) · ga gearbach (diseased with scab) · grc ψωρός (diseased with scab) · fr croûteux (full of scabs) · bg келяв (diseased with scab)