Scrouger, subs. (American).—Anything exceptional in size, quality, capacity, &c.
1847. Robb. Squatter Life, 106. The gals among 'em warn't any on your pigeon creaturs . . . but real scrougers—any on 'em over fourteen could lick a bar easy.
c. 1852. Traits of Amer. Humour, 265. A drum, and a regular scrouger at that.
Scrouperize, verb. (venery).—To
copulate: see Greens and Ride
(Rabelais).
Scroyle, subs. (old).—A diseased
wretch: Fr. écrouelles = King's-evil.
1596. Shakspeare, King John, ii. 2. By heaven, these scroyles of Angiers flout you, kings.
1596. Jonson, Ev. Man, i. 1. To be a consort for every humdrum; hang 'em, scroyles! there is nothing in them in the world. Ibid. (1601), Poetaster, iv. 3. A better, prophane rascal! I cry thee mercy, my good scroile, wast thou?
Scrub, subs. (old colloquial).—Any
mean, or ill-conditioned person,
or thing; as adj. = paltry,
mean: also scrubbed, and
scrubby; scrub-race = a contest
between contemptible animals;
after Farquhar and The
Beaux' Stratagem (1707).—B.
E., Grose.
1598. Shakspeare, Mer. of Venice, v. 1, 162. A little scrubbed boy No higher than myself.
1621. Burton, Anat. of Mel. (1836) i. i. iii. xv. 201. Or if they keep their wits, yet they are esteemed scrubs and fools, by reason of their carriage.
1634. Withal, Dict. [Nares]. Promus magis quam condus: he is none of these miserable scrubs, but a liberall gentleman.
c. 1696. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. scrub, a Ragamuffin.
1706. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, i. vi. 6. Each member of the holy club, From lofty saint, to lowly scrub. Ibid. i. x. 10. Mounted on scrubs that us'd to Scour, Upon a Trot, eight Miles an Hour.
1730. Swift, Traulus, i. The scrubbiest cur in all the pack Can set the mastiff on your back. Ibid., Stella, xxviii He finds some sort of scrub acquaintance.
1731. Fielding, Letter Writers, ii. 2. 1. Wh. You stoop to us, scrub! 2. Wh. You a lord! You are some attorney's clerk, or haberdasher's 'prentice. Ibid. (1749), Tom Jones, viii. iii. He is an errant scrub, I assure you.
1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, lxxxvii. You are worse than a dog, you old flinty-faced, flea-bitten scrub.
1766. Goldsmith, Vicar of Wakefield, x. We should go there in as proper a manner as possible; not altogether like the scrubs about us.
1814. Austen, Mansfield Park, xxv. I could not expect to be welcome in such a smart place as that—poor scrubby midshipman as I am.
1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, xxxv. No scrubs would do for no such a purpose. Nothing less would satisfy our Directors than our member in the House of Commons.
1848. Thackeray, Book of Snobs, xviii. A scrubby-looking, yellow-faced foreigner.
1852. L'Allegro: As Good as a Comedy, 109. There was to be a scrub race for sweepstakes, in which more than twenty horses had been already entered.
1861. Braddon, Trail of the Serpent, i. iv. The dumb man was a mere scrub, one of the very lowest of the police-force. Ibid. (1868), Dead Sea Fruit, xxiii. I told you I knew a handy scrub of a man, good at picking up any out-of-the-way book I may happen to want.
1883. Roosevelt [Century, xxxvi. 200]. We got together a scrub wagon team of four as unkempt, dejected, and vicious-looking broncos as ever stuck fast in a quicksand.
2. (American Univ.).—A servant.
Verb. (Christ's Hospital).—1. To write fast: e.g., 'Scrub it down.' Also as subs. = handwriting. [Lat. scribere.] See Strive.
2. (colloquial).—To drudge.
