shabaroon

English

Etymology

Uncertain; likely related to shab and shabby.

Noun

shabaroon (plural shabaroons)

  1. (rare) An unkempt, disreputable person.
    • 1823, “Letter from a Washerwoman”, in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, volume 13, number 73, page 233:
      Well, this here wun, i cant never mind his name, for they calld him by too att wunce, seemed verry thik with my loddger, Mr Pennyfeather, an' hardly missd a day cummin to see him, to mi sorrow; for i do think 'twas he put sich wild vagarys into tother's head, an' pswaided him at last to run off in mi dett, like a shabbroon as he was.
    • 1982, Julian May, The Golden Torc:
      The only persons who could be classed as shabaroons were the peddlers in the open market, the caravan drovers, and travelers newly arrived from the hinterlands; even these seemed only temporarily grubby.
    • 2007, Toren Atkinson, “Strange”, in The Shadow Out of Tim‎[1], performed by The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets:
      I'm being followed by tattooed ESL shabaroons!
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