Meaning of blackleg | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A fatal cattle disease caused by the soil-borne bacterium Clostridium chauvoei; symptomatic anthrax.
   uncountable
2. A disease of potato crops caused by pectolytic bacteria, characterized by blackening and decay of the lower stem portion.
   uncountable
3. A disease of brassicas caused by the fungus Leptosphaeria maculans
   uncountable
4. A person who cheats in a game; a cheater, especially a dishonest bookmaker.
   countable
5. A person who takes the place of striking workers.
   countable

Equivalents

Examples

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

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

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

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

CEFR level