scabby

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈskæb.i/
  • Audio (Southern England):(file)
  • Rhymes: -æbi

Adjective

scabby (comparative scabbier, superlative scabbiest)

  1. Affected with scabs; full of scabs.
  2. Diseased with the scab (mange): mangy.
  3. (printing) 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).
    • 1990, Bruce Nelson, Workers on the Waterfront: Seamen, Longshoremen, and Unionism in the 1930s, University of Illinois Press, →ISBN, page 166:
      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 […]"
    • 2016 August 31, David M. Caulfield, Ever a Fighter: The Adventures of Katherine Wilkinson, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN:
      [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.
    • 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:
      Hoochie's dad said, “All eight drivers are former 'scabby' employees who couldn't get hired by any reputable union trucking companies.”
  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!

Synonyms

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References

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