Scabrous \Sca"brous\, a. [L. scabrosus, fr. scaber rough: cf. F. scabreux.] 1. Rough to the touch, like a file; having small raised dots, scales, or points; scabby; scurfy; scaly. --Arbuthnot.
2. Fig.: Harsh; unmusical. [R.]
His verse is scabrous and hobbling. --Dryden.
His play "Chili Queen," which got nice notices during its brief off-off-Broadway run last fall, had opened the previous evening at the Kennedy Center here to a scabrous review in the Washington Post.
As a Beggar's Opera in its own right I found this sadly lacking in earthy simplicity and scabrous slanginess.