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Glite Dictionary
🚫 A strikebreaker 🚫 To break a strike
blackleg

blackleg

9.0
A person who keeps working when other workers are on strike
  • noun
  • /ˈblækˌlɛg/
  • Offensive
translation icon : esquirol
  • Many union members protested against the blackleg for undermining their fight for better wages.

Examples

  • The blackleg faced hostility from the community for crossing the picket line.

  • They hate the Blackleg and love a fight.

    King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017)

  • You've made quite a celebrity of yourself among the Blackleg ranks.

    King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017)

  • After initially appearing as mere gangsters, the Molly Maguires enlisted the sympathy of their readers by taking the side of the honest, striking miners against the blacklegs.

    Academic text (1995)

  • During the strike, the workers were angry at the blackleg who accepted their jobs.

Synonyms

rat
vsblackleg
  • Offensive
330 7.3

A person who betrays a group by telling secret information to outsiders

is specifically about continuing to work as replacement not betraying
scab
vsblackleg
  • Offensive
19 8.4

A person who works during a strike to replace those striking

is the neutral term without the strong negative label
strikebreaker
vsblackleg
1 7.7

A person who works while other workers refuse to work to protest

is the same idea expressed by a different term

How Pro-Strike

supporter
817 1.0
sympathizer
37 4.8
blackleg
  • Offensive
9.0

Surface Forms

blackleg singular
blacklegs plural

Morphology

blackleg = black + leg (opaque) = black + leg

Although formed from 'black' + 'leg', the sense 'strikebreaker' cannot be predicted from the literal meanings of the components.

Etymology

Blackleg started as a strong insult for a person who worked during a strike. The black part suggested 'shame' or being 'marked', like in the familiar word blacklist, so a blackleg was someone 'marked' as bad for breaking the strike.