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blackleg
Definitions
[ˈblaklɛɡ], (Noun)
Definitions:
- a person who continues working when fellow workers are on strike; a strike-breaker
(e.g: the blacklegs who had arrived by rail were harassed by crowds of workers)
- an acute infectious bacterial disease of cattle and sheep, causing necrosis in one or more legs
- any of a number of plant diseases in which part of the stem blackens and decays
Phrases:
Origin
:
early 18th century (in the sense ‘infectious disease of cattle and sheep’): from black + leg. The sense ‘strike-breaker’ dates from the mid 19th century; it may derive from an earlier sense ‘swindler, cheat’, with possible comparison to a crow or rook, black birds regarded as having thieving habits
[ˈblaklɛɡ], (Verb)
Definitions:
- continue working when one's fellow workers are on strike
Phrases:
Origin
:
early 18th century (in the sense ‘infectious disease of cattle and sheep’): from black + leg. The sense ‘strike-breaker’ dates from the mid 19th century; it may derive from an earlier sense ‘swindler, cheat’, with possible comparison to a crow or rook, black birds regarded as having thieving habits
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definition by Oxford Dictionaries