scab

English

Pronunciation

• IPA: /skæb/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æb

Etymology

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

Noun

scab (plural scabs)

1. An incrustation over a sore, wound, vesicle, or pustule, formed during healing.
2. (colloquial or obsolete) The scabies.
3. The mange, especially when it appears on sheep.

   • 1882: Scab was the terror of the sheep farmer, and the peril of his calling. — James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, Volume 4, p. 306.

4. Several different diseases of potatoes producing pits and other damage on their surface, caused by Streptomyces -bacteria.
5. Short form for common scab, a relatively harmless variety of scab caused by Streptomyces scabies.
6. (botany) Any one of various more or less destructive fungus diseases attacking cultivated plants, and forming dark-colored crustlike spots.
7. (founding) A slight irregular protuberance which defaces the surface of a casting, caused by the breaking away of a part of the mold.
8. A mean, dirty, paltry fellow.
9. (slang) A worker who acts against trade union policies, especially a strikebreaker.

Synonyms

• (strikebreaker): blackleg, knobstick

Translations

incrustation over a wound

Arabic: جُلْبَة (ar) (júlba) f. Armenian: please add this translation if you can Basque: please add this translation if you can Catalan: crosta (ca) f. Chinese: Mandarin: 痂 (cmn) (jiā) Crimean Tatar: qotur Croatian: krasta (hr) f. Czech: strup (cs) m. Dutch: korst (nl) Esperanto: skabio (eo) Estonian: kärn (et), korp (et) Finnish: rupi (fi) French: croûte (fr) Georgian: ქეცი (ka) (k'ec'i), მუნი (ka) (muni) German: Schorf (de) m. Greek: please add this translation if you can Hebrew: גלד (geled) m. Hindi: please add this translation if you can

Hungarian: var (hu) Icelandic: hrúður (is) n. Irish: gearb (ga) f. Italian: crosta (it) f. Japanese: please add this translation if you can Korean: 딱지 (ko) (ttak-jji) Latin: crusta (la) f. Lithuanian: please add this translation if you can Polish: strup (pl), łamistrajk (pl) Portuguese: crosta (pt) f. Romanian: please add this translation if you can Russian: струп (ru) (strup) m. Spanish: costra (es) f., postilla (es) f., grano (es) m. Swedish: skorpa (sv) Thai: ฝ้า (th) (fâa) Turkish: kabuk (tr) Welsh: cramen (cy) f. Persian: please add this translation if you can

scabies — see scabies

mange — see mange

group of diseases of potatoes

Czech: strupovitost (cs) f. Finnish: rupi (fi)

Italian: rogna (it) f.

common scab

Finnish: perunarupi (fi)

Italian: scabbia (it), rogna (it)

fungus disease of plants

Finnish: rupi (fi)

Italian: rogna (it) f.

founding irregularity

Italian: sfoglia (it)

mean, dirty, paltry fellow

Italian: gretto (it) m., meschino (it), spregevole (it) m.

strikebreaker

Finnish: rikkuri (fi) French: briseur de grève (fr) Georgian: შტრაიკბრეხერი (ka) (štraikbrexeri) German: Streikbrecher (de) m. Italian: crumiro (it) m., crumira (it) f.

Manx: neustholkeyr (gv) m. Russian: штрейкбре́хер (ru) (štrejkbréxer) m. Spanish: esquirol m., rompehuelgas m. and f. (Latin America), carnero m. (River Plate region) Swedish: svartfot (sv) c., guling (sv) c.

Verb

scab (third-person singular simple present scabs, present participle scabbing, simple past and past participle scabbed)

1. (intransitive) To get covered by a scab.
2. (intransitive) To act as strikebreaker.
3. (transitive, Australian) To beg (for), cadge, bum

   I scabbed some money off a friend.

Translations

to get covered by a scab

Finnish: arpeutua (fi)

Turkish: kabuk bağlamak (tr)

to act as a strikebreaker

Finnish: rikkuroida

slang: to beg or bum

Finnish: pummata (fi)

Anagrams

• ABCS, ABCs, BACS, bacs, cabs, SABC