Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun
- a low, contemptible person; scoundrel.
- Obsolete.
- a group of menial workers in the kitchen of a large household.
- the servants of an army.
- camp followers.
verb (used with object)
- to revile in scurrilous language.
noun
-
- an unprincipled contemptible person; scoundrel
- (as modifier)blackguard language
verb
- (tr) to ridicule or denounce with abusive language
- (intr) to behave like a blackguard
1530s, scullion, kitchen knave. Perhaps once an actual military or guard unit; more likely originally a mock-military reference to scullions and kitchen-knaves of noble households, of black-liveried personal guards, and of shoeblacks. By 1736, sense had emerged of “one of the criminal class.” Hence the adjectival use (1784), “of low or worthless character.”