scurvy
Americannoun
adjective
noun
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of scurvy
Explanation
If you are a pirate who doesn't get to shore very often to shop for fresh fruits and veggies, you might suffer from scurvy, a disease caused by vitamin C deficiency. Scurvy has some alarming symptoms: your gums become soft and tender and your teeth fall out. Scurvy has become a rarity in most parts of the world, but in regions where food is scarce and malnutrition common, it's still a problem. The unpleasant associations of the word also make it a colorful (and archaic) way to describe something low-down and miserable, as in "that was a scurvy trick you played on me, you dastardly cur!"
Vocabulary lists containing scurvy
Romeo and Juliet
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Words Every Pirate Should Know
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"Of Plymouth Plantation," Vocabulary from the historical account
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Cases include electrocution, drowning, overdose, scurvy, sickle cell anemia, a nail in the chest, a fastball in the eye and gallstones, with all the personal drama one expects from a hospital show.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 4, 2025
Early white settlers, according to the Oregon Encyclopedia, would eat cranberries as a source of vitamin C to prevent scurvy, “and the berry’s naturally waxy coating allowed for long keeping.”
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 18, 2023
For decades, historian Kenneth Carpenter writes, protein was considered the sole nutrient for human health despite emerging knowledge that fruits, vegetables, and milk eased conditions like scurvy and rickets.
From National Geographic ● Nov. 9, 2023
"I risk scurvy as well - I haven't eaten anything but croissants and kebabs for five weeks. So I'm desperate for some vegetables!"
From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2023
First my uncle died of the scurvy and we got his pigs.
From "Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village" by Laura Amy Schlitz
The films draws viewers into this world, allows them to fall in love with it, even as it sets them at a distance from the scurvier action of the characters.
From Time Magazine Archive
The "rheumatiz" has much to answer for all through English country-sides, but it never played a scurvier trick than in laying thee by the heels, when thou wast yet in a green old age.
From Tom Brown's School Days by Hughes, Thomas
Full many a stranger and from many a land Hath lodged in this old castle, and my hand Served them; but never has there passed this way A scurvier ruffian than our guest to-day.
From Alcestis by Murray, Gilbert
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
