Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also scabbed) of a person or thing, unpleasant, contemptible, generally distasteful.

1566		G. Gascoigne (trans.) Supposes III iv: Is not this the old scabbed quean that I heard disclosing all this gear to her master as I stood in the stable ere now?
1575-83		‘Bashe Libel’ in May & Bryson Verse Libel 83: I think high tyme to bidd adiu / To such a scabbed squier as you.
1592		T. Stanhope ‘To Master John Markham’ in May & Bryson Verse Libel 99: Thou crooke-backte, scabbed, scurvie Squyer.
1604		Dekker Honest Whore Pt 1 II i: bell.: Of all the filthy dry-fisted knights, I cannot abide that he should touch me. cast.: Why wench, is he scabbed?
1670		J. Ray Proverbs 53: A tender mother breeds a scabby daughter.
c.1687		‘Mac O Bonniclabbero of Drogheda’ Bog Witticisms LV 53: Who, but the Devil, or his Daughter would have to do with such a Lousie, Scabbed, Bog-trotting Son of a Whore?
1689		T. Shadwell Bury Fair III i: Why, ’tis a scabby day.
1705–07		N. Ward Hudibras Redivivus I:1 18: I vow (what’er could be the Matter) / The scabby Flock look ne’er the fatter.
1725		Bailey (trans.) Erasmus’ Colloquies 448: Why, you give me an Account of a scabby Wedding indeed.
1742		Fielding Joseph Andrews (1954) I 64: Am I to buy shirts to lend to a set of shabby rascals?
1751		Smollett Peregrine Pickle (1964) 112: He tore the letter in token of the contempt he entertained for the author, whom he not only d--ed as a lousy, scabby, nasty, scurvy, skulking lubberly noodle, but resolved to challenge to single combat with fire and sword.
1861		G. Meredith Evan Harrington I 92: A scabby sixpence?
1915		M.G. Hayden ‘Terms Of Disparagement’ in DN IV:iii 215: scabby, contemptible. ‘That was a scabby trick.’.
1926		J. Tully Jarnegan (1928) 43: Hello, you scabby rotter.
1932		(con. 1910s) J.T. Farrell Young Lonigan in Studs Lonigan (1936) 132: A scabby line of bushes extended [...] around the park.
1947		L.J. Valentine Night Stick 41: What a scabby lot these violators were. They had killed freely, lived high, had had pockets full of loose cash; but when they reached the end of the line they were penniless.
1953		A. Kahn Brownstone 52: Whew, scrubbing and scratching this scabby house all these years.
1966		T. Keyes All Night Stand 67: Have you ever seen such a scabby lot of old whores?
1970		E. Thompson Garden of Sand (1981) 77: Yeow, if you want some scabby bag. I’m talking about a baby!
1985		S. Berkoff West in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 96: Shit, cunt-face, scabby bollocks.
1997		N. Barlay Curvy Lovebox 24: He’s HIV in scabby jeans.
2002		Indep. Rev. 12 Aug. 4: Then Sick Boy takes over his aunt’s scabby pub.
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 123: Another erse-up wi that scabby black tie: ah yank it oaf for aboot the tenth time.

2. (Aus.) pertaining to a strikebreaker.

1891

Darling Downs Gaz. (Qld) 23 May 7/7: The man who calls another man a scab ought to be ashamed of himself. (Applause.) It was a very scabby thing to do, at any rate. (Laughter).

3. mean, grasping.

2000		P. Howard Miseducation of Ross O’Carroll-Kelly (2004) 136: You two are too focking scabby to give me any decent pocket money.
2001		G. Coughlan Everyday Eng. and Sl. 🌐 scabby, stingy.