scabrous
adjective
Example Sentences
Spin Staff, SPIN, 22 Apr. 2022 Instead of another routine foray into casual adultery as a metric of modern morality, this should have been a scabrous satire on cinema’s decline and hypocrisy’s ascendance. Armond White, National Review, 4 Feb. 2022 Pop culture commentators belatedly began to applaud Armstrong's scabrous depiction of the mega-rich and the comedic potential of the characters, including Tom and Greg. Clark Collis, EW.com, 9 Nov. 2021 Modernist theologians such as Edward Schillebeeckx were absolutely scabrous about the papacies of Paul VI and John Paul II, seeing in them a betrayal of the spirit of Vatican II. Michael Brendan Dougherty, National Review, 15 Sep. 2021 Her first solo show in 1975, at the ragtag experimental SoHo art space 112 Greene Street, consisted of three large, scabrous canvases depicting the pared-down form of a horse cleaved by a vertical or horizontal line. Randy Kennedy, BostonGlobe.com, 21 May 2020 On the scabrous asphalt around our Michigan home base, the T-5R would likely have all the ride comfort of a steel canoe running shallow rapids. Arthur St. Antoine, Car and Driver, 18 May 2020 Surfaces as varied as yoga mats and iPhone touch screens are carefully calibrated for our touch, designed to be neither too slick nor too scabrous. Adrienne Bernhard, Popular Mechanics, 7 Apr. 2020 Underground rappers like Denzel Curry, Ghostemane and Scarlxrd have embraced their bloodletting lyrics and scabrous noise. Los Angeles Times, 10 Sep. 2019 See More Word History
Latin scabr-, scaber rough, scurfy; akin to Latin scabere to scratch — more at scab
1646, in the meaning defined at sense 1
scabrous
adjective
Synonyms & Similar Words
- troublesome
- vexing
- vexatious
- stubborn
- troublous
- recondite
- abstruse
- abstract
- problem
- complex
- worrisome
- intricate
- complicated
- serious
- spiny
- involved
- painful
- importunate
- oppressive
- hairy
- knotty
- exhausting
- thorny
- exacting
- burdensome
- onerous
- inconvenient
- prickly
- demanding
- stressful
- hard
- sensitive
- sticky
- tricksy
- problematic
- difficult
- touchy
- catchy
- ticklish
- discommoding
- dodgy
- tricky
- tough
- nasty
- delicate
- problematical
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
- uncomplicated
- undemanding
- painless
- straightforward
- simple
- easy
- effortless
- unproblematic
- manageable
Synonym Chooser
Some common synonyms of scabrous are harsh, rough, rugged, and uneven. While all these words mean "not smooth or even," scabrous implies scaliness or prickliness of surface.
The meanings of harsh and scabrous largely overlap; however, harsh implies a surface or texture distinctly unpleasant to the touch.
While in some cases nearly identical to scabrous, rough implies points, bristles, ridges, or projections on the surface.
While the synonyms rugged and scabrous are close in meaning, rugged implies irregularity or roughness of land surface and connotes difficulty of travel.
The words uneven and scabrous can be used in similar contexts, but uneven implies a lack of uniformity in height, breadth, or quality.