Adjacent Words

blackguard definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: someone who is morally reprehensible; "you dirty dog" [syn: cad, bounder, blackguard, dog, hound, heel] v
1: subject to laughter or ridicule; "The satirists ridiculed the plans for a new opera house"; "The students poked fun at the inexperienced teacher"; "His former students roasted the professor at his 60th birthday" [syn: ridicule, roast, guy, blackguard, laugh at, jest at, rib, make fun, poke fun]
2: use foul or abusive language towards; "The actress abused the policeman who gave her a parking ticket"; "The angry mother shouted at the teacher" [syn: abuse, clapperclaw, blackguard, shout]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Date: 1535 1. obsolete the kitchen servants of a household 2. a. a rude or unscrupulous person b. a person who uses foul or abusive language • blackguardism noun • blackguardly adjective or adverb II. transitive verb Date: 1769 to talk about or address in abusive terms

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. a villain; a scoundrel; an unscrupulous, unprincipled person. --v.tr. abuse scurrilously. Derivatives: blackguardly adj. Etymology: BLACK + GUARD: orig. applied collectively to menials etc.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Blackguard Black"guard`, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Blackguarded; p. pr. & vb. n. Blackguarding.] To revile or abuse in scurrilous language. --Southey.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Blackguard Black"guard, a. Scurrilous; abusive; low; worthless; vicious; as, blackguard language.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Blackguard Black"guard, n. [Black + guard.] 1. The scullions and lower menials of a court, or of a nobleman's household, who, in a removal from one residence to another, had charge of the kitchen utensils, and being smutted by them, were jocularly called the ``black guard''; also, the servants and hangers-on of an army. [Obs.] A lousy slave, that . . . rode with the black guard in the duke's carriage, 'mongst spits and dripping pans. --Webster (1612). 2. The criminals and vagrants or vagabonds of a town or community, collectively. [Obs.] 3. A person of stained or low character, esp. one who uses scurrilous language, or treats others with foul abuse; a scoundrel; a rough. A man whose manners and sentiments are decidedly below those of his class deserves to be called a blackguard. --Macaulay. 4. A vagrant; a bootblack; a gamin. [Obs.]

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. n. Scurrilous or abusive fellow, low fellow, vile fellow, scamp, scoundrel, villain, rascal, rogue, rapscallion, loon, lown. II. a. 1. Scurrilous, abusive, contumelious, insulting, ribald, vituperative, opprobrious, black-mouthed, foul-mouthed. 2. Vile, low, worthless, base, villanous, scoundrel, scoundrelly, rascally, rascal, dishonorable, blackguardly.