blackleg

Definition

A fatal cattle disease caused by the soil-borne bacterium Clostridium chauvoei; symptomatic anthrax.

Etymology

From black + leg.

Example Sentences

• "[H]ere, then, was a community of good taste and kind feeling, no sharpers, no black-legs, no wolves in sheep's clothing."
• "[Y]our friend Bloundell-Bloundell is a professional blackleg, and travels the Continent, where he picks up young gentlemen of fashion and fleeces them."
• "They have no regard for respectability like yours — nothing between a baron and a blackleg."