scrubber

n.

1) a bullock that has takento the scrub and so become wild. See Scrub-cattle.Also formerly used for a wild horse, now called a Brumby (q.v.).

1859. H. Kingsley, `Geoffrey Hamlyn,' c. xxix:

«The captain was getting in the scrubbers, cattle which hadbeen left to run wild through in the mountains.»

1874. W. H. L. Ranken, `Dominion of Australia,' c. vi. p. 110:

«There are few field-sports anywhere . . . equal to `huntingscrubbers.'»

1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 93:

«Out flew the ancient scrubber, instinctively making towardshis own wild domain.»

1887. W. S. S. Tyrwhitt, `The New Chum in the QueenslandBush,' p. 151:

«There are also wild cattle, which are either cattle run wildor descendants of such. They are commonly called `scrubbers,'because they live in the larger scrubs.»

1888. Rolf Boldrewood, `Robbery under Arms,' p. 405:

«Here I am boxed up, like a scrubber in a pound, year afteryear.»

1893. `The Argus,' April 29, p. 4, col. 4 (`Getting in theScrubbers'):

«The scrubbers, unseen of men, would stay in their fastnessesall day chewing the cud they had laid up the night before, andwhen the sun went down and the strident laugh of the giantkingfisher had given place to the insidious air-piercing noteof the large-mouthed podargus, the scrub would give up itsinhabitants.»

2) A starved-looking or ill-bred animal.

3) The word is sometimes applied to mankind in the slang senseof an «outsider.» It is used in University circles asequivalent to the Oxford «smug,» a man who will not join in thelife of the place. See also Bush-scrubber.

1868. `Colonial Monthly,' vol. ii. p. 141 [art. `Peggy'sChristening]:

«`I can answer for it, that they are scrubbers – – to use a bushphrase – – have never been brought within the pale of any church.'

«`Never been christened?' asked the priest.

«`Have no notion of it – – scrubbers, sir – – never been branded.'»