1. A contagious skin disease caused by parasitic mites and consisting of intense itching or irritation of the skin: The infestation of scabies is caused by Sarcoptes scabiei, which dig into the flesh, where they lay eggs that hatch and spread into other areas of the outer body and cause lesions or excessive damage.

The hatched mites of scabies can pass from an infested person to another individual who is standing close to him or her; however, the infestation is usually more of a result of physical contact with infected people.

2. Etymology: from Latin scabies, "the itch", which comes from scabere, "to scratch, to scrape, to dig".

A disease of the skin that is caused by species of mites known as Sarcotidae, which infest a number of animals and humans: After June came back from her class trip, where they stayed at a youth hostel, her mother noticed that her body had red spots which started to itch and after the doctor examined her, it was confirmed that June had sarcoptic scabies, evidently acquired where she went to bed.

The same kind of unhealthy skin illness exists in animals; which is known as sarcoptic mange or sarcoptic itch.

A man named Jack took his dog to the veterinarian for its yearly checkup and sarcoptic mange was detected; so, the veterinarian gave Jack medication to relieve and to heal his dog and was told to go to his family doctor to make sure he didn’t have a form of sarcoptic scabies, too!