Blacklegs definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

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This preoccupation of the police was taken advantage of to raid again old Hairyfithill's potato field, and also to pay a visit to the bing for coal, and a very profitable time was thus spent by the strikers, even though the blacklegs were at their work in a few days What was happening in Lowwood was typical of almost all other mining villages throughout the country.

—The Underworld The Story of Robert Sinclair, Miner

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Examples (50)

[363] The forest in which we are encamped, was, in former times, a rendezvous for the blacklegs, thieves, murderers, and outlaws, generally of two States, Tennessee and Georgia. — The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Citizen-soldier, by John Beatty.
The denizens of Lower London were the bit fakers, blacklegs, griddlers, cracksmen, gonophs, kidsmen, lurkers, rampers, toffers, sharps, cly fakers and other n'er-do-wells that Society tended to dislike intensely because of their chosen professions - usually having to do with relieving said Society of something of value. — Cap'n Dyke, Lesbian Pirate Queen & Rogue Blogger
The nobility and gentry, as well as the blacklegs and swindlers of all the nations of Europe, gather there. — Down the Rhine Young America in Germany
There are also rooms for gambling, which is the staple amusement, not only for the blacklegs and swindlers, who resort to the establishment, but for the nobility and gentry. — Down the Rhine Young America in Germany
Tammany and old-time Democrats could not forget that the Tribune's editor had classed them with blacklegs, thieves, burglars, gamblers, and keepers of dens of prostitution. — A Political History of the State of New York, Volumes 1-3