blackleg

plural blacklegs

1. uncountableagricultureA fatal cattle disease caused by the soil-borne bacterium Clostridium chauvoei; symptomatic anthrax.First known use 18th c.

   “Soon afther, some mischances begun to happen to the farmer's cattle; a horse tuk the staggers, a fine vale calf died o' the black-lig, an' some uv his sheep o' the rid wather[.]”

   1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 525

2. uncountableA disease of potato crops caused by pectolytic bacteria, characterized by blackening and decay of the lower stem portion.
3. uncountableA disease of brassicas caused by the fungus Leptosphaeria maculans
4. countableA person who cheats in a game; a cheater, especially a dishonest bookmaker.First known use 18th c.

   They have no regard for respectability like yours — nothing between a baron and a blackleg.

   1852?, The Sporting Magazine (page 185)

   3 more examples

   [H]ere, then, was a community of good taste and kind feeling, no sharpers, no black-legs, no wolves in sheep's clothing.

   1836 December 31, Laurie Todd, “Letter from Laurie Todd: Christmas and New-Year’s-Day”, in New-York Mirror, a Weekly Journal, Devoted to Literature and the Fine Arts, volume XIV, number 27, New York, N.Y.: Scott & Co., printers, →OCLC, page 211, column 1

   [Y]our friend Bloundell-Bloundell is a professional blackleg, and travels the Continent, where he picks up young gentlemen of fashion and fleeces them.

   1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 32, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC

   I had never defrauded a man of a farthing, nor called him knave behind his back. But now the last rag that covered my nakedness had been torn from me. I was branded a blackleg, card-sharper, and murderer.

   1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter II, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC, page 25

5. countableA person who takes the place of striking workers.First known use 19th c.

   It's in the evening after dark when the blackleg miner creeps to work. With his moleskin pants and his dirty shirt, there goes the blackleg miner.

   1970 June 28, traditional, “The Blackleg Miner” (track 4), in Hark! The Village Wait, performed by Steeleye Span

   2 more examples

   In the autumn there was a row at some cement works about the unskilled labour men. A union had just been started for them and all but a few joined. One of these blacklegs was laid for by a picket and knocked out of time.

   1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XLIV, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, pages 364–365

   There was some sympathy for the miners among the railway workers, members of the ASRS [Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants], but any who advocated sympathetic action in support of the miners were instantly dismissed. The company attempted to bring in blacklegs from outside the area under the auspices of the National Free Labour Association but ASRS members used various means to ‘persuade’ most of them to return whence they came. Very few strikebreakers and blacklegs succeeded in assisting the company and those who did could expect to be roughed up.

   2023, David Brandon, The General Strike 1926: A New History, Pen and Sword Books Ltd, →ISBN, page 62

   Synonyms: blacklegger, scab, scalie, strikebreaker

present singular third person blacklegs · participle present blacklegging · participle past blacklegged · past blacklegged

1. To continue working whilst fellow workers strike.

   Why was I there, munitioning, blacklegging, slaving as though my bread depended on it?

   1939, Philip George Chadwick, The Death Guard, page 154