subs. (common).—See quot. 1851.
1851–61. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, i. 20. They … burst out into one expression of disgust. “There’s a SCURF!” said one; “He’s a regular scab,” cried another. Ibid., ii. 262. The Saxon Sceorfa, which is the original of the English SCURF, means a scab, and scab is the term given to the “cheap men” in the shoemaking trade. Scab is the root of our word Shabby, hence SCURF and Scab, deprived of their offensive associations, both mean shabby fellows.
1870. LONGFELLOW, Dante’s Inferno, xv. 111. That wretched crowd … If thou hadst had a hankering for such SCURF.
Verb. (thieves’).—To arrest; to lay hold of (GROSE, VAUX).
