Wiktionary

blackleg

English

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Etymology

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From black +‎ leg.

Noun

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blackleg (countable and uncountable, plural blacklegs)

  1. (uncountable, agriculture, veterinary medicine) A fatal cattle disease caused by the soil-borne bacterium Clostridium chauvoei; symptomatic anthrax. [from 18th c.]
  2. (uncountable) A disease of potato crops caused by pectolytic bacteria, characterized by blackening and decay of the lower stem portion.
  3. (countable) A person who cheats in a game; a cheater, especially a dishonest bookmaker. [from 18th c.]
    • 1836 December 31, Laurie Todd, “Letter from Laurie Todd: Christmas and New-Year’s-Day”, in New-York Mirror, a Weekly Journal, Devoted to Literature and the Fine Arts, volume XIV, number 27, New York, N.Y.: Scott & Co., printers, →OCLC, page 211, column 1:
      [H]ere, then, was a community of good taste and kind feeling, no sharpers, no black-legs, no wolves in sheep's clothing.
    • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 32, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:
      [Y]our friend Bloundell-Bloundell is a professional blackleg, and travels the Continent, where he picks up young gentlemen of fashion and fleeces them.
    • 1852?, The Sporting Magazine (page 185)
      They have no regard for respectability like yours — nothing between a baron and a blackleg.
    • 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter II, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC, page 25:
      I had never defrauded a man of a farthing, nor called him knave behind his back. But now the last rag that covered my nakedness had been torn from me. I was branded a blackleg, card-sharper, and murderer.
  4. (countable) A person who takes the place of striking workers; a scab. [from 19th c.]
    Synonyms: scalie, strikebreaker
    • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XLIV, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, pages 364–365:
      In the autumn there was a row at some cement works about the unskilled labour men. A union had just been started for them and all but a few joined. One of these blacklegs was laid for by a picket and knocked out of time.
    • 1970 June, traditional (lyrics and music), “The Blackleg Miner” (track 4), in Hark! The Village Wait‎[1], performed by Steeleye Span:
      It's in the evening after dark when the blackleg miner creeps to work. With his moleskin pants and his dirty shirt, there goes the blackleg miner.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Further reading

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Verb

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blackleg (third-person singular simple present blacklegs, present participle blacklegging, simple past and past participle blacklegged)

  1. To continue working whilst fellow workers strike.
    • 1939, Philip George Chadwick, The Death Guard, page 154:
      Why was I there, munitioning, blacklegging, slaving as though my bread depended on it?
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