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  1. blackleg love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. An infectious, usually fatal bacterial disease of cattle and sometimes of sheep, goats, and swine, caused by Clostridium chauvoe and characterized by gas-containing swellings in the musculature.
  2. n. A bacterial or fungal disease of certain plants, such as the cabbage and potato, that causes the stems to turn black at the soil line.
  3. n. One who cheats at cards; a cardsharp.
  4. n. Chiefly British A worker who is opposed to trade unions; a scab.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A disease in cattle and sheep which affects the legs; symptomatic anthrax. See anthrax.
  2. n. A severe form of purpura.
  3. n. One who systematically tries to gain money fraudulently in connection with races, or with cards, billiards, or other games; a rook; a swindler. The term implies the habitual frequenting of places where wagers are made and games of chance are played, and the seeking of subsistence by dishonorable betting, but does not always imply direct cheating. Sometimes contracted to leg.
  4. n. Same as black-nob.
  5. n. A laborer who is not a member of a trade-gild or trade-union; a ‘scab.’

Wiktionary

  1. n. uncountable Fatal cattle disease caused by the soil-borne bacteria Clostridium chauvoei; symptomatic anthrax
  2. n. countable A person who takes the place of striking workers. A scab.
  3. n. countable A person who cheats in a game, a cheater.
  4. n. colloquial A notorious gambler.
  5. adj. Relating to a scab worker.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. colloq. A notorious gambler.
  2. n. engraving A disease among calves and sheep, characterized by a settling of gelatinous matter in the legs, and sometimes in the neck.

WordNet 3.0

  1. v. take the place of work of someone on strike
  2. n. someone who works (or provides workers) during a strike

Examples

  • “One of their number stood out, refusing to join the combine; whereupon the rest summoned the gang and had the "blackleg" pressed for his contumacy.”

    The Press-Gang Afloat and Ashore

  • “BURNS -- who has stuck loyally to Council -- fiercely denounced as a "blackleg" by crowd.”

    Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 103, October 29, 1892

  • “He thinks I am a kind of blackleg, not true to my principles; or rather he thinks that I am not a Christian at all, and only call myself one for the sake of the associations.”

    Father Payne

  • “The most plausible ground is that of those [257] who, bringing marriage down to the level of prostitution, maintain that the prostitute is a "blackleg" who is accepting less than the "market rate of wages," i.e., marriage, for the sexual services she renders.”

    Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 6 Sex in Relation to Society

  • “If an excited Unionist called a man a "blackleg" or "scab" in the Imperial bar he was run out -- sometimes with great difficulty, and occasionally as far as the lock-up.”

    Children of the Bush

  • “In our day he would have been called a "blackleg," and mobbed: perhaps, even in the seventeenth century, he needed protection, for the college built him”

    The Charm of Oxford

  • “_Escroc_ as the French might call him; "blackleg" in the English vocabulary; "sport" in American phrase, Frank Lara is a man with whom no one who knows him likes to take liberties.”

    The Flag of Distress A Story of the South Sea

  • “A kind of blackleg doing the work cheaper -- nay, for nothing. ”

    The Big Bow Mystery

  • “Now, he leans over his guitar and begins strumming the melody and summoning the vengeful lyrics: "Across the way they stretch a line/To catch the throat and break the spine/Of the dirty blackleg miner.”

    The Guardian: Martin Carthy and Tom Robinson's notes on a revolution

  • “According to environmental activists, 250 elephants and hundreds of other animals have died from starvation, thirst and blackleg -- an infectious disease caused by unusually arid conditions and stress -- over the past two months.”

    Newsweek: Death in the Bush

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hypernyms (3)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. work
  1. do work
  1. worker

same context (25)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. blackmailer
  2. trickster
  3. puzzler
  4. brucellosis
  5. adulterer
  1. bluidy
  2. timeserver
  3. picker-up
  4. needin
  5. con-man
  1. extortioner
  2. kickers
  3. Daffy
  4. antichrist
  5. quate
  1. skinflint
  2. punter
  3. boozer
  4. charlatan
  5. anthrax
  1. bloodsucker
  2. bookmaker
  3. moneylender
  4. fortune hunter
  5. swindler

reverse dictionary (7)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. black-nob
  1. leg
  1. blacklegism
  1. leggism
  1. turfite
  1. knobstick
  1. sport

tags (2)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. black
  1. ccvcccvc

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tagging (1)

Words tagged ‘blackleg’

  1. cardsharp

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Lists

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  • whichbe A scab during a union strike. Jun 6, 2008

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‘blackleg’ has been looked up 2076 times, added to 16 lists, commented on 1 time, and has a Scrabble score of 17.