زَبَابٌ

Root: زب

Full Definition

زَبَابٌ A species of rat which is large and deaf: or which has red hair: or which has red and beautiful hair: or which is without hair: or a species of field-rat, of large size: one thereof is called زَبَابَةٌ: or this signifies a deaf rat: or a deaf rat of the desert: and its pl. is زَبَابٌ, [or rather this is a coll. gen. n. of which it is the n. un.,] and [its pl. is] زَبَابَاتٌ. The Arabs make it the subject of a prov.: they say, أَسْرَقُ مِنْ زَبابَةِ [More thievish than a zebábeh]. (S, A, TA. [Another reading is mentioned in the TA in art. زنب; namely, رَنَابَة; which is there said, on the authority of Ibn-'Abd-Rabbih in the عِقْد, to signify a rat, or mouse.]) And they also liken to it an ignorant person. It is said in a trad. of 'Alee, أَنَا وَٱللّٰهِ إِذًا مِثْلُ الَّتِى أُحِيطَ بِهَا فَقِيلَ زَباَبْ زَبَابْ حَتَّى دَخَلَتْ جُحْرَهَا ثُمَّ ٱحْتُفِرَ عَنْهَا فَٱجْتُرَّ بِرِجْلِهَا فَذُبِحَتْ, i. e. [I, by Allah, in that case, were] like that animal, namely, the she-hyena, which has been surrounded, and to which it has been said Zebáb! Zebáb! [until it has entered its hole, and then the earth has been dug away from it, and it has been dragged by its hind leg, and slaughtered:] meaning, I will not be like the she-hyena that is decoyed to its death: for that animal probably eats the زباب, as it does the field-rat.

def.2 Also i. q. سَاعٍ [A messenger, or a messenger on a beast of the post: and a collector of the poor-rates: &c.].

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