Word info Synonyms Antonyms

scurvy

Speech parts

1. scurvy - Noun

2. scurvy - Adjective

3. scurvy - Adjective Satellite

Meaning

Covered or affected with scurf or scabs; scabby; scurfy; specifically, diseased with the scurvy.

Vile; mean; low; vulgar; contemptible.

A disease characterized by livid spots, especially about the thighs and legs, due to extravasation of blood, and by spongy gums, and bleeding from almost all the mucous membranes. It is accompanied by paleness, languor, depression, and general debility. It is occasioned by confinement, innutritious food, and hard labor, but especially by lack of fresh vegetable food, or confinement for a long time to a limited range of food, which is incapable of repairing the waste of the system. It was formerly prevalent among sailors and soldiers.

Source: Webster's dictionary

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Examples

As the winter set in with its customary Canadian severity the real trouble of the French began. They did not suffer from the cold, but they were dying of scurvy. Harry Johnston

The vitality of children is clean and honest. Their petty shortcomings derive, in ninety-nine out of a hundred instances, from their effete elders' pettiness. Contagion is a generational fact. But children can develop defenses against their elders' spiritual scurvy simply because they're new. Michael Bishop

I'm sure I had low-level scurvy all of my childhood. Aisha Tyler

The mind, like the body, has its contagious diseases and its scurvy. ...[W]e catch everything from those with whom we come in contact; their gestures, their accent, etc. Julien Offray de La Mettrie

I scorn you, scurvy companion. William Shakespeare

HONORABLE, adj. Afflicted with an impediment in one's reach. In legislative bodies, it is customary to mention all members as honorable as, 'the honorable gentleman is a scurvy cur.' Ambrose Bierce

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