blackleg

blackleg

English

Etymology

black +‎ leg

Noun

blackleg (countable and uncountable, plural blacklegs)

1. (uncountable) A fatal cattle disease caused by the soil-borne bacteria Clostridium chauvoei; symptomatic anthrax
2. (countable) A person who takes the place of striking workers; a scab.
   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 22, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     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.

3. (countable) A person who cheats in a game, a cheater.
   • 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter II, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 731476803:

     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. (colloquial) A notorious gambler.

Synonyms

• (strikebreaker): scalie, scab, strikebreaker

Derived terms

• blacklegging

Translations

fatal cattle disease

French: charbon symptomatique (fr) m Karamojong: ekicurnet, lokecuman

Russian: чёрная но́жка (čjórnaja nóžka) f Walloon: tcherbon des tchås (wa) m

strikebreaker — see strikebreaker

cheater

Finnish: huijari (fi) Polish: szuler (pl) m

Russian: шу́лер (ru) m (šúler)

Further reading

• Blackleg on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Blacklegs in the 1920 edition of Encyclopedia Americana.

Verb

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?