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Shabby vs Scurvy - What's the difference?

shabby | scurvy |

As adjectives the difference between shabby and scurvy

is that shabby is torn or worn; poor; mean; ragged while scurvy is covered or affected with scurf or scabs; scabby; scurfy; specifically, diseased with the scurvy.

As a noun scurvy is

a disease caused by insufficient intake of vitamin C leading to the formation of livid spots on the skin, spongy gums, loosening of the teeth and bleeding into the skin and from almost all mucous membranes.

shabby

English

Adjective

(er)
  • Torn or worn; poor; mean; ragged.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1905, author=
    • , title= , chapter=2 citation , passage=Miss Phyllis Morgan, as the hapless heroine dressed in the shabbiest of clothes, appears in the midst of a gay and giddy throng; she apostrophises all and sundry there, including the villain, and has a magnificent scene which always brings down the house, and nightly adds to her histrionic laurels.}}
    They lived in a tiny apartment, with some old, shabby furniture.
  • Clothed with ragged, much worn, or soiled garments.
    • The fellow arrived looking rather shabby after journeying so far.
  • Mean; paltry; despicable.
    • shabby treatment

    Derived terms

    * shabby-genteel (Webster 1913)

    scurvy

    English

    (wikipedia scurvy)

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • (disease) A disease caused by insufficient intake of vitamin C leading to the formation of livid spots on the skin, spongy gums, loosening of the teeth and bleeding into the skin and from almost all mucous membranes.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2012-03
    • , author=William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter , title=The British Longitude Act Reconsidered , volume=100, issue=2, page=87 , magazine= citation , passage=Conditions were horrendous aboard most British naval vessels at the time. Scurvy and other diseases ran rampant, killing more seamen each year than all other causes combined, including combat.}}

    Synonyms

    * (vitamin C deficiency disease) Barlow's disease, , scorbutus

    Derived terms

    * scurvy grass

    Related terms

    * -scorbic * scorbic * ascorbic * scorbutic

    Adjective

    (er)
  • Covered or affected with scurf or scabs; scabby; scurfy; specifically, diseased with the scurvy.
  • * Bible, Leviticus xxi. 18, 20
    • whatsoever man be scurvy or scabbed
  • Contemptible, despicable, low, disgustingly mean.
    • a scurvy''' trick; a '''scurvy knave
  • * Jonathan Swift
    • that scurvy custom of taking tobacco
  • * 1610 , , act 3 scene 2
    • What a pied ninny's this! Thou scurvy patch!

    Derived terms

    * scurvily * scurviness

    See also

    * morphew

    References

    * * * * Who Named It? last accessed 28-Mar-2007