▪ I. shab, n.
(ʃæb)
Forms: 1 sceabb, scæb, sceb, 3 schabbe, 4 shabbe, 4– shab.
[OE. sceabb masc. corresponding to ON. *skabbr scab n., f. Teut. root *skaƀ- to scratch, shave:—Indogermanic *skā̆bh-, whence L. scabiēs itch, scabĕre (perf. scābī) to scratch. From the same root are Flem. dial. schab (Kilian schabbe), mod.G. schäbe (schabe, dial. schabbe) itch.]
1. = scab n. 1–3. Now only dial., a cutaneous disease in sheep (= scab n. 2).
| c 897 K. ælfred Gregory's Past. Care xi. 70 Se hæfð singalne sceabb se þe næfre ne blinð unᵹestæððiᵹnesse. c 1000 Sax. Leechd. I. 322 Eac hyt afeormaþ ðone leahtor..þe hy achoras nemnað þæt ys sceb [v.r. scæb]. c 1290 St. Francis 309 in S. Eng. Leg. 62 Þo bi-gan þe souwe a-non..To beo ful of schabbe and of buyles. 13.. Pol. Songs (1839) 239 He shrapeth on is shabbes. 1382 Wyclif Lev. xxii. 22 Litil bleynes, or shab, or drye round shab. 1806 Med. Jrnl. XV. 518 They were afflicted, not with the sheep-pox, but with the scab, or shab. 1810 Sporting Mag. XXXV. 30 Our poor kiddy..which died yesterday of the shab. 1825 Loudon Encycl. Agric. §6522 (Sheep) The scab, shab, ray, or rubbers. 1886 W. Somerset Word-bk., Shab, scab in sheep. |
2. slang. A low fellow (= scab n. 4). ? Obs.
| 1637 Bastwick Litany i. 19 Neither are those Shabs for any merit in themselues..worthy to giue guts vnto a beare. 1735 Dyche & Pardon Dict., Shab, a mean, sorry, pitiful Fellow, one that is guilty of low Tricks &c. 1837 Bayly Songs & Ball. (1844) II. 40, I belong to the Club, which is very genteel—We ne'er let a Scamp or a Shab in. 1851 Borrow Lavengro xcviii, ‘Any name but that, you shab,’ said Black Jack. |
▪ II. shab, v. Obs. exc. dial.
(ʃæb)
[Of obscure origin; sense 2 suggests connexion with shab n. 2.]
1. trans. with off: a. To get rid of; get (a person) out of the way.
| 1677 W. Hubbard Narrative Postscr. T 3 b, Certain Nip⁓nets intended to have sheltred themselves under Vncas; but he perceiving it would be distastful to the English, soon shab'd them off. 1698 Farquhar Love & Bottle iv. iii, I have shabb'd him off purely. a 1824 in Mactaggart Gallovid. Encycl. 347 They shab'd puir Thomas aff to hell Wi nimble feet. 1828 Croker Fairy Leg. S. Irel. II. 212 But when that [money] was gone..they soon shabbed him off. |
b. To put (a person) off with (something inferior or unsatisfactory). Cf. fob v. 3.
| 1840 J. P. Kennedy Quodlibet iii. (1860) 61, I hold the people in too much esteem to shab them off with anything of a secondary quality. |
2. intr. with off or away: To slink away, sneak off. Also, to fall away from one's engagement.
| a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Shab'd off, sneakt, or slid away. 1720 Humourist 185 And so the fat Parson shabb'd off. 1829 Brockett N.C. Words, Shab-off, Shab-away, to sneak away. 1880 W. Cornw. Gloss. s.v., He wanted to shab-off without paying. |
b. (See quot.)
| 1755 Johnson, To Shab v.n., to play mean tricks; a low barbarous cant word. |
† 3. trans. ? To rob. Obs.
| 1787 W. Hutton Courts of Requests xxxvii. 187 He bore it like a philosopher; to be shabbed was nothing new, he had often lost everything he had, but himself. |