scumball

English

Etymology

From scum +‎ ball.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Adjective

scumball (comparative more scumball, superlative most scumball)

1. (slang) Sleazy, disreputable, or despicable.
   • 1996, Barbara Parker, Blood Relations, Signet, published 1997, →ISBN, page 315:

     "This kid, your scumball client, also has a rap sheet six pages long. He shot a sixteen-year-old in the back last year and got sixty days on a piss-ass weapons violation because the victim wouldn't testify. […]

   • 1999, Lynn Emery, After All, Arabesque Books, →ISBN, page 136:

     "I can't help it if your uncle and his scumball friends keep crawling out from under every rock that gets turned over in this town."

   • 2006, Jack Kerley, A Garden of Vipers, Dutton, →ISBN, page 288:

     Another fifty grand for Shuttles; the scumball business was booming.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:scumball.

Noun

scumball (plural scumballs)

1. (slang) A sleazy, disreputable, or despicable person; a lowlife.
   • 2002, Iris Johansen, Body of Lies, Bantam Books, →ISBN, page 158:

     "Answer me. How would you feel if I was the one who might get knifed in the gullet by some scumball?"

   • 2006, Peggy Moreland, The Texan's Convenient Marriage, Harlequin, →ISBN, pages 33–34:

     Recently widowed and still grieving over the loss of her husband, his mother had been an easy mark for a scumball like Jacob. Playing on her weakened emotional state, within two months Jacob had sweet-talked her into marrying him.

   • 2007, Haruki Murakami, After Dark (trans. Jay Rubin), Vintage International (2007; original Japanese novel published 2004), →ISBN, page 84:

     […] He thinks 'cause he's stronger he can beat up a woman, strip her of everything she's got, and walk away. And on top of it he doesn't pay his damn hotel bill. That's a man for you — a real scumball."

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:scumball.

Synonyms

• scumbag, sleazebag, sleazeball

Anagrams

• cumballs