Citations:scumball

Adjective: "(slang) sleazy, disreputable, or despicable"

 * 1996, Barbara Parker, Blood Relations, Signet (1997), ISBN 9780451184733, page 315:
 * "This kid, your scumball client, also has a rap sheet six pages long. He shot a sixteen-year-old in the back last year and got sixty days on a piss-ass weapons violation because the victim wouldn't testify.
 * 1998, Carolyn Zane, The Rich Gal's Rented Groom, Silhouette Books (1998), ISBN 9780373193394, page 56:
 * Shoulders square, eyes narrow, he slowly turned around and met the eyes of Patsy's scumball neighbors.
 * 1999, Lynn Emery, After All, Arabesque Books (1999), ISBN 9781583140628, page 136:
 * "I can't help it if your uncle and his scumball friends keep crawling out from under every rock that gets turned over in this town."
 * 2004, Shannon Hollis, His Hot Number, Harlequin (2004), ISBN 0373791488, page 8:
 * You scumball charmer, you.
 * 2006, Jack Kerley, A Garden of Vipers, Dutton (2006), ISBN 9780525949527, page 288:
 * Another fifty grand for Shuttles; the scumball business was booming.

Noun: "(slang) a sleazy, disreputable, or despicable person; a lowlife"

 * 1992, Tami Hoag, Still Waters, Orion Books (2007), ISBN 9781407207070, page 179:
 * But the little scumball had finally been run to ground at a biker bar down in Loring, a trashy little burg stuck down between the hills along the Iowa border.
 * 1999, Diana Braund, Wicked Good Time, Naiad Press (1999), ISBN 9781562802417, page 89:
 * "Come by tomorrow. We'll talk about how we can catch this scumball."
 * 1999, Joan Elliott Pickart, The Most Eligible MD, Silhouette Books (1999), ISBN 9780373242627, page 26:
 * In my opinion, some scumball has been using that pretty little gal for a punching bag. All the signs are there. She's been physically abused."
 * 2002, Iris Johansen, Body of Lies, Bantam Books (2002), ISBN 9780553800975, page 158:
 * "Answer me. How would you feel if I was the one who might get knifed in the gullet by some scumball?"
 * 2004, Suzanne Brockmann, Gone Too Far, Ballantine Books (2004), ISBN 9780345483423, page 185:
 * "At some point, Mary Lou was screwing around behind my back with some terrorist scumball."
 * 2006, Sam Bourne, The Righteous Men, HarperCollins (2006), ISBN 9780061138294, page 212:
 * "Some pimp scumball from Brownsville, you kidding?
 * 2006, Peggy Moreland, The Texan's Convenient Marriage, Harlequin (2006), ISBN 9780373767366, pages 33-34:
 * Recently widowed and still grieving over the loss of her husband, his mother had been an easy mark for a scumball like Jacob. Playing on her weakened emotional state, within two months Jacob had sweet-talked her into marrying him.
 * 2007, Haruki Murakami, After Dark (trans. Jay Rubin), Vintage International (2007; original Japanese novel published 2004), ISBN 9780307388889, page 84:
 * He thinks 'cause he's stronger he can beat up a woman, strip her of everything she's got, and walk away. And on top of it he doesn't pay his damn hotel bill. That's a man for you — a real scumball."
 * 2008, Gill McKnight, Green-Eyed Monster, Bold Strokes Books (2008), ISBN 9781602820425, page 149:
 * “Rudy? As in my hotel manager Rudy? Scumball. Setting me up like that. Selling me out.”