scabrous

Adjective

scabrous (comparative more scabrous, superlative most scabrous)

1. Covered with scales or scabs; hence, very coarse or rough.
   • After the incident with the gasoline, Noel’s burnt arm remained scabrous and was susceptible to infections.
   • I was ſurpriz'd to ſee Mars continue quite round, though hardly, to Appearance, disjoin'd from the ſcabrous Edge of the Moon; but that Inſtant I thought it began to loſe its Figure.—Clouds.1737 July–December, J[ohn] Bevis, “An Observation of an Occultation of Mars by the Moon, in Covent-Garden, 1736”, in Philosophical Transactions. Giving Some Account of the Present Undertakings...

   Synonyms:

   scabby, scaly, scurfy, reef, roynish, scabrate, scabrid, scald, scalled, scurvy

2. (figuratively) Disgusting, repellent.
   • The novel was a flagrantly scabrous bodice-ripper, and Rachael was ashamed to read it in public.
   • This typifies the man, body and soul, who is transformed after Baptism, that is to say, after the entrance of the priest, and then takes up once more the scabrous contaminations of the flesh.1959, Tertullian, translated by William P. Le Saint, Treatises on Penance: On Penitence and On Purity (Ancient Christian Writers; 28), Westminster, Md.: Newman Press; London: Longmans Green, →OCLC...

   Synonyms:

   repulsive, vile, abhorrant, abhorrent, bad, sickly, mean, infernal, bum, horrid

3. (figuratively) Salacious, scandalous; concerning oneself with lurid or lascivious substance.
   • Remember a few years ago there was that scabrous movie Snuff? When it played in New York there were enormous protests, huge publicity — and huge crowds and profits at the theater.1974 February 2, Charles Bonnell, “Typewriter In Hand”, in Gay Community News, volume 1, number 32, page 4
4. (figuratively) Of music, writing, etc.: lacking refinement; unmelodious, unmusical.
   • [A]s his Verse is ſcabrous, and hobbling, and his Words not every where well choſen, the purity of Latin being more corrupted, than in the time of Juvenal, and conſequently of Horace, who writ when the Language was in the heighth of its perfection; ſo his diction is hard; his Figures are generally...1693, John Dryden, The Dedication, Juvenal; Persius; John Dryden, [William Congreve, and Nahum Tate], transl., The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […], London...
   • In January 1826 Stendhal wrote for The New Monthly Review a lengthy account of a novel called Olivier which was then the talk of the Paris salons. The author of this highly romantic, scabrous and worthless fiction was Henri de la Touche, but all believed, as the publisher intended that they should...1939, F[rederick] C[harles] Green, “The Novelist: 1821–1830”, in Stendhal, Cambridge: At the University Press, →OCLC, page 188

   Synonyms:

   harsh, rough, absonant, cacophonic, cacophonical, cacophonious, cacophonous, discordant, disharmonious, dissonant

5. (figuratively) Difficult, thorny, troublesome, requiring tact.
   • These were things which gave him [Louis XI of France] no concern; and he went on alone, without taking any advice, in the scabrous path of novelty, turning his back on antiquity, and laughing at it. When solemnly remonstrated with by its most venerable representatives, he smiled and shrugged his...[1845–1847], [Jules] Michelet, “[Book the Thirteenth.] Chapter II. Louis XI. Revolution Attempted by Him. a.d. 1462–1464”, in G. H. Smith, transl., History of France, volume I, London: Whittaker and...
6. (US, figuratively) Covered with a crust of dirt or grime.
   • She twisted her head away from him and stared at the scabrous papered wall beside the bed.1950, Anya Seton [pseudonym; Ann Seton Chase], Foxfire, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, →OCLC; republished Boston, Mass.: Mariner Books, 2015, →ISBN, page 221
7. Having scabers.