scab
/skæb/
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.79 in modern English
Meaning
noun
An incrustation over a sore, wound, vesicle, or pustule, formed during healing.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
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
noun
Common scab, a relatively harmless variety of scab (potato disease) caused by Streptomyces scabies.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
Any one of various more or less destructive fungal diseases that attack cultivated plants, forming dark-colored crustlike spots.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
A slight irregular protuberance which defaces the surface of a casting, caused by the breaking away of a part of the mold.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "Scab was the terror of the sheep farmer, and the peril of his calling."
- "Out, scab!"
- "I would make thee the / loathsomest scab in Greece."
- "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."
- "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."
- "Trev walked over and leaned down, dropping a tender kiss on her forehead where the skin was raw and scabbing from the cut."
Etymology
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: scabb, sċeabb, skabb, *skabbaz, *skabʰ-
Usage
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Medicine.