SAB

noun and verb (Lifestyle and Leisure) (People and Society) Colloquially in the UK, noun: An opponent of blood sports who disrupts a fox- hunt as a form of protest, a hunt saboteur; also known more fully as a hunt sab. Also, any animal rights campaigner who engages in sabotage. transitive or intransitive verb: To disrupt (a hunt) as a hunt saboteur; to go on a sabbing expedition. Etymology: Formed by abbreviating saboteur to its first three letters. History and Usage: The word arose among hunt saboteurs as a name for themselves and started to appear in print towards the end of the seventies. As the movement against blood sports grew during the eighties, so the terms sab and hunt sab became increasingly common in the newspapers. It was also sometimes used more generally for animal rights campaigners whose action involved sabotaging scientific experiments etc. The battle between the hunters and the 'sabs' is now an integral part of the hunting scene. He is a veteran of countless sabbing missions. Sunday Times 6 Mar. 1983, p. 11 The sabs made a point of photographing their quarry in the lab before rescuing them, and on publication, these heart-rending photographs of dogs, being experimented on...raised a public outcry. Illustrated Weekly of India 13 July 1986, p. 44 For two seasons I went and 'sabbed' my local hunt. Peace News 19 Sept. 1986, p. 9