scabrous

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: scab=rous

CIDE DICTIONARY

scabrous, a. [L. scabrosus, fr. scaber rough: cf. F. scabreux.].

•  Rough to the touch, like a file; having small raised dots, scales, or points; scabby; scurfy; scaly.  Arbuthnot.  [1913 Webster]
•  Fig.: Harsh; unmusical.  [1913 Webster]

  "His verse is scabrous and hobbling."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

scabrous, adj.
1 having a rough surface; bearing short stiff hairs, scales, etc.; scurfy.
2 (of a subject, situation, etc.) requiring tactful treatment; hard to handle with decency.
3 a indecent, salacious. b behaving licentiously.

Derivative

scabrously adv. scabrousness n.

Etymology

F scabreux or LL scabrosus f. L scaber rough

THESAURUS

scabrous

asperous, bristly, craggy, downy, flaky, flocculent, furfuraceous, harsh, jagged, knobby, knotty, lentiginous, lepidote, off-color, prickly, racy, risky, risque, rugged, salty, scabby, scabious, scaly, scraggy, scurfy, spicy, squamous, suggestive, thorny, uneven, unlevel, unsmooth

ROGET THESAURUS

scabrous

Roughness

N roughness, tooth, grain, texture, ripple, asperity, rugosity, salebrosity, corrugation, nodosity, arborescence, pilosity, brush, hair, beard, shag, mane, whisker, moustache, imperial, tress, lock, curl, ringlet, fimbriae, pili, cilia, villi, lovelock, beaucatcher, curl paper, goatee, papillote, scalp lock, plumage, plumosity, plume, panache, crest, feather, tuft, fringe, toupee, wool, velvet, plush, nap, pile, floss, fur, down, byssus, moss, bur, fluff, knot (convolution), rough, uneven, scabrous, scaly, knotted, rugged, rugose, rugous, knurly, asperous, crisp, salebrous, gnarled, unpolished, unsmooth, roughhewn, craggy, cragged, crankling, scraggy, prickly, arborescent, leafy, well-wooded, feathery, plumose, plumigerous, laciniate, laciniform, laciniose, pappose, pileous, pilose, trichogenous, trichoid, tufted, fimbriated, hairy, ciliated, filamentous, hirsute, crinose, crinite, bushy, hispid, villous, pappous, bearded, pilous, shaggy, shagged, fringed, befringed, setous, setose, setaceous, like quills upon the fretful porcupine, rough as a nutmeg grater, rough as a bear, downy, velvety, flocculent, woolly, lanate, lanated, lanuginous, lanuginose, tomentose, fluffy, against the grain, cabello luengo y corto el seso.