Scab Meaning
/skæb/Definition, CEFR level C2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounAn incrustation over a sore, wound, vesicle, or pustule, formed during healing.
nounThe scabies.
Sentence Examples
Tom's wound was still weeping and had yet to scab over.
His belly button hole is going to scab up.
CEFR Practice Quiz
After the cut stopped bleeding, a dry crust called a ____ formed over the injury.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She resisted the urge to pick at the ____ on her knee as it healed.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Scab was the terror of the sheep farmer, and the peril of his calling."
— 1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 4, page 306:
"Out, scab!"
— c. 1601–1602, William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, act 2, scene 5:
"I would make thee the / loathsomest scab in Greece."
— c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:
"Trev walked over and leaned down, dropping a tender kiss on her forehead where the skin was raw and scabbing from the cut."
— 2009, Linda Wisdom, Wicked By Any Other Name, page 233:
"The bark that wasn′t already scabbed off was peppered with beetle holes."
— 2009, Nancy Lord, Rock, Water, Wild: An Alaskan Life, page 121:
Explore More C2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
After the cut stopped bleeding, a dry crust called a ____ formed over the injury.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She resisted the urge to pick at the ____ on her knee as it healed.