scabrous

adjective

sca·​brous ˈska-brəs 

 also  ˈskā-

1

: difficult, knotty

a scabrous problem

2

: rough to the touch: such as

a

: having small raised dots, scales, or points

a scabrous leaf

b

: covered with raised, roughened, or unwholesome patches

scabrous paint

scabrous skin

3

: dealing with suggestive, indecent, or scandalous themes : salacious

also : squalid

scabrously adverb

scabrousness noun

Choose the Right Synonym for scabrous

rough, harsh, uneven, rugged, scabrous mean not smooth or even.

rough implies points, bristles, ridges, or projections on the surface.

a rough wooden board

harsh implies a surface or texture distinctly unpleasant to the touch.

a harsh fabric that chafes the skin

uneven implies a lack of uniformity in height, breadth, or quality.

an old house with uneven floors

rugged implies irregularity or roughness of land surface and connotes difficulty of travel.

a rugged landscape

scabrous implies scaliness or prickliness of surface.

a scabrous leaf

Examples of scabrous in a Sentence

a movie with scabrous humor

Recent Examples on the Web

Pope Francis often made scabrous criticisms of younger, more tradition-minded priests and faithful. —The Editors, National Review, 8 May 2025

Lamar mirrors Nas’s slow build to a scabrous eruption, followed by exhaustion. —Jon Caramanica, New York Times, 25 Nov. 2024

Is this Scott redoing American Gangster as a grand Italian tragedy, or scabrous comedy about a family undone by their ineptitude and excess? —Scott Tobias, Vulture, 20 Nov. 2024

Jacobs wrote the script with these three actors in mind, which was perhaps shocking news to each of them, who play scabrous women who locate the worst characteristics of each other and then blow them up into throwdown fights. —Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 18 Sep. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Latin scabr-, scaber rough, scurfy; akin to Latin scabere to scratch — more at scab

First Known Use

1646, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for scabrous

• glabrous