blacklegs

Noun

blackleg (countable and uncountable, plural blacklegs)

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

   Synonyms:

   blacklegger, scab, scalie, strikebreaker

See all 6 meanings of blackleg