Blackleg: Definition and part of speech

Blackleg

n. A disease among calves and sheep, characterized by a settling of gelatinous matter in the legs, and sometimes in the neck.
n. A notorious gambler.

The word meanings were obtained from OPTED(The Online Plain Text English Dictionary), which is based on “The Project Gutenberg Etext of Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary” which is in turn based on the 1913 US Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary (See Project Gutenburg), as a text file.

The old English or Gothic letter, in which the Early English manuscripts were written, and the first English books were printed. It was conspicuous for its blackness. See Type.

A friar of the Dominican order; — called also predicant and preaching friar; in France, Jacobin. Also, sometimes, a Benedictine.

a. Of or pertaining to the days in the calendar not marked with red letters as saints’ days. Hence: Unlucky; inauspicious.
a. Written or printed in black letter; as, a black-letter manuscript or book.
a. Given to the study of books in black letter; that is, of old books; out of date.

n. A vagrant; a bootblack; a gamin.
n. The scullions and lower menials of a court, or of a nobleman’s household, who, in a removal from one residence to another, had charge of the kitchen utensils, and being smutted by them, were jocularly called the “black guard”; also, the servants and hangers-on of an army.
n. The criminals and vagrants or vagabonds of a town or community, collectively.
n. A person of stained or low character, esp. one who uses scurrilous language, or treats others with foul abuse; a scoundrel; a rough.

v. t. To put in a black list as deserving of suspicion, censure, or punishment; esp. to put in a list of persons stigmatized as insolvent or untrustworthy, — as tradesmen and employers do for mutual protection; as, to blacklist a workman who has been discharged. See Black list, under Black, a.

adv. In a black manner; darkly, in color; gloomily; threateningly; atrociously.

n. Black rent, or rent paid in corn, flesh, or the lowest coin, a opposed to “white rent”, which paid in silver.
n. A certain rate of money, corn, cattle, or other thing, anciently paid, in the north of England and south of Scotland, to certain men who were allied to robbers, or moss troopers, to be by them protected from pillage.
n. Payment of money exacted by means of intimidation; also, extortion of money from a person by threats of public accusation, exposure, or censure.