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scabrous, a.
(ˈskeɪbrəs, now freq. ˈskæbrəs)
[f. L. scabr-, scaber (related to scabĕre to scrape, scratch) + -ous. Cf. also late L. scabrōsus, F. scabreux.]
1. a. Rough with minute points or knobs, as distinguished from unevenness of surface: esp. Nat. Hist. and Physiol.
1657S. Purchas Pol. Flying-Ins. i. iii. 7 All her feet are scabrous, and rough, to take hold at the first touch. 1741Monro Anat. Nerves (ed. 3) 103 A scabrous bony Ridge. 1760J. Lee Introd. Bot. iii. v. (1765) 183 Scabrous, rugged; when the Disk is covered with Tubercules, little knobs. 1790T. Bewick Hist. Quadrup. 145 The surface of the skin was scabrous and knotty, of a close texture, and when dry extremely hard. 1803Herschel in Phil. Trans. XCVII. 215 A lens that had a very scabrous polish on one side. 1826Kirby & Sp. Entomol. IV. xlvi. 273 Scabrous... Rough to the touch from granules scarcely visible. 1829Good's Study Med. (ed. 3) III. 427 The alæ of the nose become swelled and scabrous. 1894R. B. Sharpe Birds Gt. Brit. I. 4 [The Rook has] the forehead and sides of face bare, and covered with a white scabrous skin.
b. In fig. phr. with reference to caustic writing.
1862M. Hopkins Hawaii 275 He wrote with point and rapidity, and his pen had a scabrous edge.
c. Encrusted, begrimed. Chiefly U.S.
1939Listener 19 Jan. 157/1 A once bewitching villa, now scabrous, awaits the knacker. a1961J. Reynolds in Webster s.v., [The] shell of the house is scabrous with lichen and mildew. 1962P. H. Johnson Error of Judgement xxxiii. 240 In this early glow, the tattered and scabrous paintwork on the porticos looked like a covering of dead leaves, ivy, or virginia creeper, brittle at the end of autumn. 1967T. Keneally Bring Larks & Heroes ii. 16 In its [sc. a hut's] bay of scabrous timber, it was altogether a poor comment on Halloran's vehemence. 1969N.Y. Rev. Books 2 Jan. 14/1 Trudging over countless guts of cement that ran like slag in Gehenna; I stuffed my scabrous shoes with newspapers.
2. Of an author, his compositon or style: Harsh, unmusical, unpolished.
Cf. late L. versus scabri (Macrobius).
a1585Polwart Flyting w. Montgomerie 31 Thy ragged roundels,..some out of lyne, with scabrous colours. a1637B. Jonson Discov. Wks. II. 119 Virgill was most loving of Antiquity; yet how rarely doth hee insert aquai, and pictai! Lucretius is scabrous and rough in these. 1656Blount Glossogr. s.v., A Scabrous style, for an unpleasant kinde of writing. 1693Dryden Disc. Satire Ess. (ed. Ker) II. 70 His [Persius'] verse is scabrous, and hobbling.
3. Full of obstacles, difficult, ‘thorny’.
1646R. Baillie Lett. & Jrnls. (1841) II. 349 We stick long sometymes upon scabrous questions. 1810Bentham Packing (1821) 72 Whosoever would be saved from falling into error and heterodoxy on this scabrous ground. 1832Austin Jurispr. ii. 46 We must pick our scabrous way with the help of a glimmering light. 1904Times 15 June 7/2 When this scabrous moment arrives the Russian defenders may remember Dragomiroff and his advice.
4. Risky, bordering upon the indelicate. Now freq. used in various extended senses: nastily abusive, disgusting, repulsive.
Cf. quot. 1862 under sense 1 b.
1881Meredith Tragic Com. iv. 66 Sentiment, cynicism, and satin impropriety and scabrous, are among those verses where pure poetry has a recognized voice. 1882World 1 Nov. 5 His scabrous novels. 1894Athenæum 3 Mar. 275/3 Mr. Maude..has chosen to write about divorce and adultery,..and many other potentially scabrous topics. 1951M. Kennedy Lucy Carmichael ii. i. 79 One shouldn't believe a word Emil says. I ventured to ask them..about Terrific Charles, because Emil is always particularly scabrous about him. 1969N.Y. Rev. Books 16 Jan. 32/4 Without going into scabrous detail, might he not have given us just a teeny hint as to why ‘the experience convinced me the union was indeed for decentralization’? 1973Times 24 May 19/1 [Scandals] create hysteria because they appeal to a scabrous and irrational element in the human mind. 1979London Rev. Bks. 25 Oct. 10/1 His propaganda pieces grow more outrageously scabrous.
Hence ˈscabrously adv., in a scabrous manner, † harshly; ˈscabrousness, ruggedness, hardness.
1572Knox Hist. Ref. Wks. 1846 I. 10 Albeit that some thingis be obscurly, and some thingis scabruslie spokin. 1727Bailey vol. II, Scabrousness, Ruggedness, Roughness. 1847Fraser's Mag. XXXVI. 519 What a contemporary of Shakspeare called the scabrousness of our elder literature. 1977N.Y. Rev. Books 14 Apr. 8/2 The first of the book's three sections, in which a non-existent and uninhabited Ibansk is carefully and at times scabrously described. |