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Blackleg: meaning, pronunciation and examples
Blackleg noun. A worker who carries on working, or takes a striker’s place, during a strike.
How to say it
BLAK-leg/ˈblaklɛɡ/
2 syllables, stressed on the first (BLAK). Forms: blacklegs.
Blackleg in a sentence
The miners jeered at the blacklegs crossing the picket line.
Nobody in the village spoke to him for years after he’d been a blackleg in the long strike.
Similar and opposite
Similar:
- strikebreaker
- scab
Where blackleg comes from
First, in the 18th century, a word for a swindler at the races; why is uncertain.
Test yourself
Which word fills the gap?
Nobody in the village spoke to him for years after he’d been a _____ in the long strike.
- malingerer
- secondment
- blackleg
Show the answer
blackleg: Nobody in the village spoke to him for years after he’d been a blackleg in the long strike.