as in lame
arousing or deserving of one's loathing and disgust
that's a scabby trick to play on someone trying to help
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Recent Examples of scabby
Wheat can be treated to remove scabby kernels.
—
Tom W. Allen, The Conversation, 12 Nov. 2025
Darken and thicken it for old and scabby goop.
—Mark Hay, Popular Science, 9 Oct. 2025
There were the same cars on the blocks, the clotheslines, and the scabby back yards.
—Jennifer Wilson, New Yorker, 28 Sep. 2025
View this post on Instagram Currently wrapped in a somewhat scabby old blanket, with a face mask on, clutching a lukewarm coffee while attempting and failing to get some decent writing done ? Send help.
—Lucy Wood, Marie Claire, 6 Mar. 2019
As buzzy, crowd-pleasing indie comedies got snatched up for millions, the festival's scabby mutant black sheep went untouched, until horror-specific streaming service Shudder stepped in.
—Charles Bramesco, Esquire, 20 July 2017
People walk up and try to grab a sample with dirty, bleeding, scabby hands not realizing that other people will also be sampling that food.
—Abigail Van Buren, Twin Cities, 31 Mar. 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for scabby
Adjective
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His other go-to bogeyman, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, is now firmly in his lame-duck era as his term ends this spring.—
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Your ultra-lame social media posts (with awful production values) don’t cut it by a Colorado mile high.—
Adjective
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Here in his pitiful, mini Gaza where reasoning and logic struggle futilely.—
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Instead Tripp comes across as simultaneously pitiful and predatory, a fine line that Paulson was able to walk straight to the year-round Christmas store.—
Adjective
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The checklist for cleaning the kitchen was probably just washing dirty dishes, wiping down countertops, and mopping the floors.—
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Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty.—
Adjective
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Researchers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China have designed a new sodium-sulfur battery with higher power density and discharge capacity than before, enabling a cheaper, safer alternative to lithium-ion batteries.—
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Fentanyl is cheap, compact, and lethal at microscopic doses, produced through decentralized networks designed to survive disruption.—
Adjective
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The growth of passive investing, through index funds found in the 401(k) accounts of average Americans, has propped up the stock market while also potentially setting it up for a nasty fall.—
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Instead of this stuff that's raised overseas that's done in ways that doesn't have any checks, that it's got polluted water, it's being fed really nasty stuff, full of antibiotics, full of chemicals.—
Adjective
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Wednesday’s dour stalemate with Leeds United at Anfield represented a wretched start to 2026.—
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This wretched regime is doomed to be overthrown by the risen populace and rebellious youth.—
Adjective
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The medical ordeals are traumatic and disgusting, but fascinating and full of the quirks of modern life.—
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Having snow, slush, and (eventually) water all over my floors was a disgusting feeling.—
Adjective
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People want to write mean things.—
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The Old Pal is like a Negroni, but meaner.—
Cite this Entry
“Scabby.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/scabby. Accessed 12 Jan. 2026.
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