1. dealing with suggestive, indecent, or scandalous themes 2. rough to the touch b : covered with raised, roughened, or unwholesome patches 3. difficult, knotty (as in a scabrous problem)

This word appears in a New Yorker review of the movie, 40-Year-Old Virgin: “The wildest, most scabrous jokes in this lewd hit comedy spring from a recognizable male dilemma.”