زب

زَبَابٌ ذ A species of rat which is large and deaf: or which has red hair: (K:) or which has red and beautiful hair: (TA:) or which is without hair: (K:) or a species of field-rat, of large size: one thereof is called زَبَابَةٌ: (TA:) or this signifies a deaf rat: (S:) or a deaf rat of the desert: (A:) and its pl. is زَبَابٌ, [or rather this is a coll. gen. n. of which it is the n. un.,] (S, TA,) and [its pl. is] زَبَابَاتٌ. (TA.) The Arabs make it the subject of a prov.: (S:) 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. (S, TA.) It is said in a trad. of 'Alee, أَنَا وَا@للّٰهِ اـِذًا مِثْلُ الَّتِى أُحِيطَ بِهَا فَقِيلَ زَباَبْ زَبَابْ حَتَّى دَخَلَتْ جُحْرَهَا ثُمَّ ا@حْتُفِرَ عَنْهَا فَا@جْتُرَّ 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. (TA.) -A2- Also i. q. سَاعٍ [ A messenger, or a messenger on a beast of the post: and a collector of the poor-rates: &c.]. (CK: but omitted in the TA, and in my MS. copy of the K.)