Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A crust discharged from and covering a healing wound.
  • noun Scabies or mange in domestic animals or livestock, especially sheep.
  • noun Any of various plant diseases caused by fungi or bacteria and resulting in crustlike spots on fruit, leaves, or roots.
  • noun The spots caused by such a disease.
  • noun Slang A person regarded as contemptible.
  • noun A worker who refuses membership in a labor union.
  • noun An employee who works while others are on strike; a strikebreaker.
  • noun A person hired to replace a striking worker.
  • intransitive verb To become covered with scabs or a scab.
  • intransitive verb To work or take a job as a scab.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To form a scab or scabby incrustation; become covered with a scab or scabs; specifically, to heal over; cicatrize; repair solution of continuity of a surface by the formation of a new skin or cicatrix.
  • noun An incrusted substance, dry and rough, formed over a sore in healing.
  • noun The mange, or some mangy disease caused by the presence of a parasite, as an itch-insect; scabies.
  • noun A mean, paltry, or shabby fellow: a term of contempt.
  • noun Specifically, in recent use, a workman who is not or refuses to become a member of a labor-union, who refuses to join in a strike, or who takes the place of a striker: an opprobrious term used by the workmen or others who dislike his action.
  • noun In botany, a fungous disease affecting various fruits, especially apples and pears, in which a black mold appears, often distorting or destroying the fruit.
  • noun In founding, any projection on a casting caused by a defect in the sand-mold.
  • Having to do with “scabs,” or made by them: used opprobriously: as, scab mills; scab labor; scab shoes.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To become covered with a scab.
  • intransitive verb to take the place of a striking worker.
  • noun An incrustation over a sore, wound, vesicle, or pustule, formed by the drying up of the discharge from the diseased part.
  • noun Colloq. or Obs. The itch in man; also, the scurvy.
  • noun The mange, esp. when it appears on sheep.
  • noun A disease of potatoes producing pits in their surface, caused by a minute fungus (Tiburcinia Scabies).
  • noun (Founding) A slight irregular protuberance which defaces the surface of a casting, caused by the breaking away of a part of the mold.
  • noun Low A mean, dirty, paltry fellow.
  • noun Cant A nickname for a workman who engages for lower wages than are fixed by the trades unions; also, for one who takes the place of a workman on a strike.
  • noun (Bot.) Any one of various more or less destructive fungus diseases attacking cultivated plants, and usually forming dark-colored crustlike spots.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An incrustation over a sore, wound, vesicle, or pustule, formed during healing.
  • noun The scabies.
  • noun The mange, especially when it appears on sheep.
  • noun Several different diseases of potatoes producing pits and other damage on their surface, caused by Streptomyces -bacteria.
  • noun Short form for common scab, a relatively harmless variety of scab caused by Streptomyces scabies.
  • noun botany Any one of various more or less destructive fungus diseases attacking cultivated plants, and forming dark-colored crustlike spots.
  • noun founding A slight irregular protuberance which defaces the surface of a casting, caused by the breaking away of a part of the mold.
  • noun A mean, dirty, paltry fellow.
  • noun slang A worker who acts against trade union policies, especially a strikebreaker.
  • verb intransitive To become covered by a scab or scabs.
  • verb intransitive To form into scabs and be shed, as damaged or diseased skin.
  • verb transitive To remove part of a surface (from).
  • verb intransitive To act as a strikebreaker.
  • verb transitive, Australia, New Zealand, informal To beg (for), to cadge or bum.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb take the place of work of someone on strike
  • verb form a scab
  • noun someone who works (or provides workers) during a strike
  • noun the crustlike surface of a healing skin lesion

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old Norse skabb.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old English sceabb, Old Norse skabb, Latin scabies ("scab, itch, mange.") Cognate with Old English scafan, Latin scabere ("to scratch").

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Examples

  • They denied that the term scab has been used in a threatening or intimidating manner.

    ireland.com Breaking News 2009

  • The uncompromising and terrible hatred of the trade-unionist for a scab is the hatred of a class for a traitor to that class, -- while the hatred of a trade-unionist for the militia is the hatred of a class for a weapon wielded by the class with which it is fighting.

    THE CLASS STRUGGLE 2010

  • Their hatred for a scab is as terrible as the hatred of a patriot for a traitor, of a Christian for a Judas.

    THE SCAB 2010

  • Their hatred for a scab is as terrible as the hatred of a patriot for a traitor, of a Christian for a Judas.

    The Scab 1905

  • Their hatred for a scab is as terrible as the hatred of a patriot for a traitor, of a Christian for a Judas.

    THE SCAB 1905

  • The uncompromising and terrible hatred of the trade-unionist for a scab is the hatred of a class for a traitor to that class, -- while the hatred of a trade-unionist for the militia is the hatred of a class for a weapon wielded by the class with which it is fighting.

    The Class Struggle 1905

  • Their hatred for a scab is as terrible as the hatred of a patriot for a traitor, of a

    The Scab 1904

  • The uncompromising and terrible hatred of the trade unionist for a scab is the hatred of a class for a traitor to that class, while the hatred of a trade unionist for the militia is the hatred of a class for a weapon wielded by the class with which it is fighting.

    The Class Struggle 1903

  • The sentimental connotation of "scab" is as terrific as that of "traitor" or "Judas," and a sentimental definition would be as deep and varied as the human heart.

    The Scab 1905

  • A violent accession of noise proclaimed that the mob had broken through and was dragging a scab from a wagon.

    SOUTH OF THE SLOT 2010

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