scab

CEFRC2

/skæb/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A dry covering that forms over a healing cut or wound.

  2. 02

    noun

    A worker who refuses to join a strike.

Examples

  • His belly button hole is going to scab up.

  • Tom's wound was still weeping and had yet to scab over.

At a glance

Sits at C2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. The mange, especially when it appears on sheep.

  2. The scabies.

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

More examples

In context

  • I scabbed some money off a friend.

  • 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.

  • 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.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

After the cut stopped bleeding, a dry crust called a blank formed over the injury.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

From Middle English scabb, scabbe (also as shabbe, schabbe > English shab), from Old English sċeabb and Old Norse skabb, both from Proto-Germanic *skabbaz (“scab, scabies”), from Proto-Indo-European *skabʰ- (“to cut, split, carve, shape”). Doublet of shab. Cognate with German Schabe (“scabies”), Danish skab (“scab, scabies”), Swedish skabb (“scab, scabies”), Latin scabies (“scab, itch, mange”). Related also to Old English scafan (“to scrape, shave”), Latin scabere (“to scratch”), English shabby.