scab

An incrustation over a sore, wound, vesicle, or pustule, formed during healing.countableuncountable

The scabies.colloquialcountableobsolete

The mange, especially when it appears on sheep.countableuncountable

• Scab was the terror of the sheep farmer, and the peril of his calling.

Any of several different diseases of potatoes producing pits and other damage on their surface, caused by streptomyces bacteria (but formerly believed to be caused by a fungus).uncountable

Common scab, a relatively harmless variety of scab (potato disease) caused by Streptomyces scabies.countableuncountable

Any one of various more or less destructive fungal diseases that attack cultivated plants, forming dark-colored crustlike spots.countableuncountable

A slight irregular protuberance which defaces the surface of a casting, caused by the breaking away of a part of the mold.countableuncountable

A mean, dirty, paltry fellow.countableuncountable

• Out, scab!
• I would make thee the / loathsomest scab in Greece.

A worker who acts against trade union policies; any picket crosser (strikebreaker), and especially one with devotion to union busting.countablederogatoryslang

• When a scab comes down the street, men turn their backs and angels weep in heaven, and the devil shuts the gates of hell to keep him out.

To become covered by a scab or scabs.intransitive

To form into scabs and be shed, as damaged or diseased skin.intransitive

• 1734, Royal Society of London, The Philosophical Transactions (1719 - 1733) Abridged, Volume 7, page 631, Thoſe Puſtules aroſe, maturated, and ſcabbed off, intirely like the true Pox.

To remove part of a surface (from).transitive

• The beds shall be scabbed off to give a solid bearing, no pinning shall be admitted between the backing and the face stones and there shall be a good square joint not exceeding one inch in width, and the face stone shall be scabbed off to a

To act as a strikebreaker.intransitive

• Don't scab for the bosses / Don't listen to their lies / Us poor folks haven't got a chance / Unless we organize.
• Nobody desires to scab, to give most for least. The ambition of every individual is quite the opposite, to give least for most; and, as a result, living in a tooth-and-nail society, battle royal is waged by the ambitious individuals.

To beg (for), to cadge or bum.AustraliaNew-ZealandUK

• I scabbed some money off a friend.
• 2004, Niven Govinden, We are the New Romantics, Bloomsbury Publishing, UK, page 143, Finding a spot in a covered seating area that was more bus shelter than tourist-friendly, I unravelled a mother of a joint I′d scabbed off the garçon.