scaly, adj. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

scaly adj.

also scaley, skaly

[SE scaly, suffering from a skin disease, typically ringworm]

1. sick, run down.

1793		Southey letter to Thomas Lamb 3 Apr. Letters (1856) I 19: Poor Anax! he was quite scaly before his departure, but is now recovering apace.
1862		‘Artemus Ward’ Artemus Ward, His Book 189: My success was skaly, and I likewise had a narrer scape of my life.
1963		L.F. Freed Crime in S. Afr. 106: A ‘bum’ is a tramp, and a ‘scaly bum’ is a lousy tramp.

2. mean, miserly; occas. as adv.

1797		‘T.B. Junr.’ Pettyfogger Dramatized II iii: As to your proceeding against me that was a scaly trick?
1811		Lex. Balatronicum n.p.: Scaly. Mean. Sordid. How scaly the cove is; how mean the fellow is.
1821		Egan Life in London (1869) 91: Shamming intolerably drunk [...] to prevent him from behaving scaly to the waiters.
1825		Age (London) 12 June 37/2: But Deerhurst, though known to be scaly, Had not even sole to propose.
1832		Egan Bk of Sports 197: [note] Ve must not be scaly, by no manner of means to Sal.
1848		Bartlett Dict. Americanisms.
1849		Bell’s Life in Sydney 22 Dec. 3/2: [I] was a depending mostly on what the gennelmen used to tip me; some of ’em would drop me a shilling or so now and them, but most of 'em was uncommon scaly.
1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor III 282/1: A single man [...] will go into a publican’s and call for 1s. worth of rum, and the publican will call me a scaly fellow, if I don’t do the same.
1873		Sl. Dict. 278: Scaly shabby, or mean. Perhaps anything which betokens the presence of the ‘Old Serpent,’ or it may be a variation of ‘fishy’.
1883		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 3 Nov. 3/1: [headline] The Queer Doings of Scaly Managers and Dimmed Theatrical Stars.
1890		J. Payn Notes from ‘News’ 28: Many a man, objects to being called a ‘scaly varmint’ by the driver of his hansom.
1913		H. De Lisser Jane’s Career (1971) 18: Y’u is too scaly.
1913		Sport (Adelaide) 30 Aug. 9/3: Reg G, the scaly bookmaker, is very downhearted because he got struck, and wants the mugs to weigh out their branmash.
1915		Wodehouse Psmith Journalist (1993) 267: For of all the scaly localities I have struck this seems to me the scaliest.

3. despicable.

c.1785		‘The Dog and Duck Rig’ in Holloway & Black I (1975) 80: Your flamer will grow gallows haughty, / When she’s told of your scaly mistake.
1796		R. Newton Progress of a Woman of Pleasure [cartoon caption] Bad luck to all scaly fellows.
1811		see sense 2.
1823		in Byron note to Don Juan Canto IX 149: Then your blowing will wax gallows haughty, / When she hears of your scaly mistake.
1831		Navy at Home II 123: Ah Mr Bill you’re there, are ye, scaly fellow!
1834		Eve. Star (N.Y.) 9 June 2/4: [headline] A scaly trick.
1848		Paul Pry 11 Dec. n.p.: [W]hen you walk out with your tally victorine and muff on [...] while your better half is crying ‘penny vinkles’ on the other; you do not condescend to recognise him, poor sole. This is rather scally of you.
1848		J.R. Lowell Biglow Papers (1880) 88: The scaliest trick they ever played wuz bringin’ on me hither.
1854		Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 13 Mat n.p.: We wish to show up a few of the peeps who attended the levee [...] They were a scaly set.
1855		‘The Railway’ in Diprose’s Comic Song Bk 2: That’s a very scaly remark.
1864		J.T. Trowbridge Cudjo’s Cave 349: Minny-fish? That’s a scaly name. And they say you are a scaly fellow.
1876		Appleton’s Journal (N.Y.) 22 Apr. 528/1: Don’t pass off your scaly views as an exponent of — Seminary’s way of thinking.
1884		C.F. Lummis letter 23 Oct. in Byrkit Letters from the Southwest (1989) 45: Of all the scaly meals I ever gulped down by the help of abundant water and keen hunger, those [...] are the toughest.
1909		Wodehouse Mike & Psmith [ebook] ‘Not an unsound scheme. By no means a scaly project’.
1910		Wodehouse Psmith in the City (1993) 47: Football [...] By no means a scaly idea.
1934		O. Strange Sudden 31: Yo’re yellow, like the rest o’ yore scaly, shoot-from-cover family.
1936		Wodehouse ‘Good-bye to All Cats’ in Young Men in Spats 129: [T]he scaliest kind of floater.
1953		Randolph & Wilson Down in the Holler 281: scaley: adj. and adv. Inferior, low grade, contemptible.
1996		CyberBraai Lex. at www.matriots.com 🌐 A person who is ‘scaly’ is not nice, a scumbag, and should be left off the Christmas party invitation list.

4. shabby.

1840		T. Haliburton Letter-bag of the Great Western (1873) 17: Den dey holds me ’sponsible for all de plate, which is not fair by no manner o’ means at all, in such a mob of scaley whites as we ab on board and where ebery man is taken what pays passage, and sometimes dem white fellers is no better nor him should be.
1843–44		Dickens Martin Chuzzlewit (1995) 450: A reg’lar scaly old shop, warn’t it?
1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1862		‘Artemus Ward’ Artemus Ward, His Book 199: The train of cars in which I was to trust my wallerable life was the scaliest, rickytiest lookin lot of consarns that I ever saw on wheels afore.
1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1882		County Paper (Oregon, MO) 15 Sept. 2/6: Such words as [...] sappy for silly, scaly for shabby.
1883		J. Payn Thicker than Water III 171: What! [...] you mean to say he never gave you nothing to take the taste out of it? Scaly varmint!
1909		J.W. Carr in ‘Word-List From Northwest Arkansas’ in DN III:v 403: scaly, adj. Shabby, contemptible.
1915		M.G. Hayden ‘Terms Of Disparagement’ in DN IV:iii 215: scaly, shabby. ‘It was a scaly trick your friend played on you.’.
1923		Wodehouse Leave it to Psmith (1993) 374: ‘A scaly neighbourhood!’ he murmured.

5. unpleasant.

1833		Satirist (London) 10 Mar. 501/3: ‘By my soul, Crockey, thou art an odd fish’ [...] ‘[T]hat accounts for his being such a scaly fellow’.
1849		Morn. Chron. (London) 27 Nov. 5/2: The measures by which they sell winkles and cockles [...] have all false bottoms [...] and can be inserted or slid out dexterously acclrding as the customer is a ‘jonnock’ or a ‘scaly’ cove.
1853		T. Haliburton Sam Slick’s Wise Saws II 35: You are an odd fish, and did play me that scaley trick just now.
1875		Auckland Eve. Star (Supp.) 30 Oct. 6/1: It is in fact, just now decidedly ‘scaly’, not to say even ‘fishy’.
1888		H. King Savage London 384: He wur a scaly scamp and no mistake.
1903		A. Adams Log of a Cowboy 57: While I know every foot of this trail through here [...] there’s several things that look scaly.
1918		H. Simon ‘Prison Dict.’ in AS VIII:3 (1933) 31/1: SCALE. Louse. Hence, scaly bum: contemptuous epithet meaning lousy tramp.
1923		Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves 106: Then things you think are going to be the scaliest nearly always turn out not so bad.

In compounds

scaly bloke (n.) [bloke n. (3)]

(N.Z.) a thin man.

1984		Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 1016/1: —1935.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 96/2: scaly bloke thin man, c.1935.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].

scaly fish (n.)

a rough but honest sailor.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

scaly-leg (adj.)

(US) promiscuous.

1969

B. Jackson Thief’s Primer 84: Maybe some scaly-leg ole gal who is a waitress in some beer joint. You’re liable to sit around there and put $40 in the jukebox [...] just to get her attention and get you some pussy.

scalyleg (v.)

(US) to work as the cheapest level of prostitute.

1990

S. Morgan Homeboy 50: She was scalylegging the taco trade; rented a trailer next to a wetback camp.