Shab

//ʃæb// noun, verb, slang

noun, verb, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Scabies. UK, countable, dialectal, obsolete, uncountable
  2. 2
    A scab. UK, countable, dialectal, obsolete, uncountable
Verb
  1. 1
    To scratch; to rub. obsolete

    "I have shabbed him off purely"

  2. 2
    To move (something, away or out of the way), to drive off. UK, dialectal, obsolete

    "Certain Nipnets intended to have sheltred themselves under Vncas; but he perceiving it would be distastful to the English, soon shab'd them off."

  3. 3
    To skulk or sneak away. UK, slang

    "[…] and so the fat Parson shabb'd off,[…]"

Example

More examples

"Certain Nipnets intended to have sheltred themselves under Vncas; but he perceiving it would be distastful to the English, soon shab'd them off."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English shabbe, schabbe, from Old English sċeabb, from Proto-West Germanic *skabb, from Proto-Germanic *skabbaz. Doublet of scab.

Etymology 2

See scab.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.