score
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: skôr
ipa: /skɔː/
enpr: skôrʹ
ipa: /skoɹ/
note: rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger
enpr: skōrʹ
ipa: /sko(ː)ɹ/
note: rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger
note: non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger
ipa: /skoə/
rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)
Forms: form: scores
form: scoring
form: scored
form: scored
form: no-table-tags
form: glossary
form: score
form: score
form: scored
form: score
form: scorest
form: scored
form: scoredst
form: scores
form: scoreth
form: scored
form: score
form: scored
form: score
form: scored
form: score
form: -
form: scoring
form: scored
Etymology: From Middle English score, skore, schore, from Old English scoru (“notch; tally; score”), from Old Norse skor, from Proto-Germanic *skurō (“incision; tear; rift”), which is related to *skeraną (“to cut”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“cut”). Cognate with Icelandic skora, Swedish skåra, Danish skår. Related to shear.
For the sense “twenty”: The mark on a tally made by drovers for every twenty beasts passing through a tollgate.
Senses: examples: text: A very neat old woman, still in her good outdoor coat and best beehive hat, was sitting at a polished mahogany table on whose surface there were several scored scratches so deep that a triangular piece of the veneer had come cleanly away,[…].
ref: 1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
text: The baker scored the cake so that the servers would know where to slice it.
glosses: To cut a notch or a groove in a surface.
glosses: To record the tally of points for a game, a match, or an examination.
examples: text: "Of course it would be hypocritical for me to pretend that I regret what Abraham did. After all, I've scored by it."
ref: 1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, “chapter 50”, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC:
text: In the past decade gay people have scored a number of significant advances.
ref: 1982 February 13, Wayne Dynes, “Unnatural”, in Gay Community News, volume 9, number 29, page 4:
glosses: To obtain something desired.
examples: text: It is unusual for a team to score a hundred goals in one game.
text: Pelé scores again!
text: And White Hart Lane was stunned when Rovers scored just five minutes after the restart in front of their away following.
ref: 2011 September 29, Jon Smith, “Tottenham 3 - 1 Shamrock Rovers”, in BBC Sport:
glosses: To obtain something desired.
To earn points in a game.
examples: text: No, Butthead, that's my point. You didn't score. You got a zero.
ref: 1996 March 5, Mike Judge, “Substitute”, in Beavis and Butthead, season 6, episode 18, Mr. Van Driessen (actor):
text: At the end of first grade, the children scored 80 percent correct on this test, a value that remained unchanged through third grade.
ref: 2004, Diane McGuinness, Early reading instruction: what science really tells us about how to teach reading:
text: Intelligence is heritable, and for a long time, researchers assumed that people with high IQ scores would have kids who also scored above average.
ref: 2018 June 13, Rory Smith, “IQ scores are falling and have been for decades, new study finds”, in CNN:
glosses: To obtain something desired.
To achieve academic credit on a test, quiz, homework, assignment, or course.
examples: text: […] he scored big by hitting the jack pot at the Bellagio (he won $7,000). The next day, he won $15,000 on the nickel machines at the Palm Casino!
ref: 2005, Shannon Nash, For the Love of Money, page 215:
topics: gambling
games
glosses: To obtain something desired.
To win money by gambling.
examples: text: I scored some drugs last night.
text: Did you score tickets for the concert?
text: What am I doing in this place? / Why does the doctor have no face? / Oh, I can't crawl across the floor / Ah, can't you see, Sister Morphine, I'm trying to score
ref: 1971, Jagger–Richards, Marianne Faithfull, “Sister Morphine”, in Sticky Fingers, performed by The Rolling Stones:
text: I jump up, bubble up, what's in store? / Love is the drug and I need to score
ref: 1975, Andy Mackay, Bryan Ferry, “Love Is the Drug”, performed by Roxy Music:
glosses: To obtain something desired.
To acquire or gain.
glosses: To obtain something desired.
To extract a bribe.
qualifier: crime
raw_tags: of a police officer
examples: text: Chris finally scored with Pat last week.
text: Gotta find a chick who'll give you more / Well, there's a spot that I've discovered / Where a guy's guaranteed to score
ref: 1982, “Prowlin'”, in Domenic Bugatti, Frank Muskeer, Christopher Cerf (lyrics), Grease 2:
text: A red-blooded American male who once scored with reality TV stars, he [Sean Duffy] is now a devoted dad with his own chicken coop and beehives, publicly pledging his commitment to his wife and their old Chrysler minivan.
ref: 2025 June 23, Caroline Kitchener, “The MTV Reality Star in Trump’s Cabinet Who Wants You to Have More Kids”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
glosses: To obtain something desired.
To obtain a sexual favor.
examples: text: Critics scored the game 92%.
text: […] this was the case for most students, who scored it highly (medians of 4 with many scores of 5) […]
ref: 2007, Cross-Cultural Urban Design: Global or Local Practice?, page 197:
glosses: To rate; to evaluate the quality of.
examples: text: Godfather II is nothing like ready. It is not yet scored, and thus not mixed. There remain additional shooting, looping, editing.
ref: 1974, New York Magazine, volume 7, number 45, page 98:
text: Robertson scored several of Scorsese’s films, including Raging Bull, Casino, The Wolf of Wall Street and The Irishman.
ref: 2023 August 10, Adrian Horton, “Robbie Robertson, member of the Band, dies at age 80”, in The Guardian, UK:
topics: broadcasting
entertainment
film
lifestyle
media
music
television
glosses: To provide (a film, etc.) with a musical score.
examples: text: […] and the scoring for a start by these "inferior" horses would kill a thoroughbred. As an instance, in the 2:27 race at Cleveland, last summer, twelve horses scored seventeen times before they got a fair start.
ref: 1878, John H. Wallace, Wallace's Monthly, volume 4, page 18:
topics: hobbies
horse-racing
horseracing
horses
lifestyle
pets
racing
sports
glosses: To return (a horse and rider) to the starting-point repeatedly, until a fair start is achieved.
Synonyms: sense: to cut a groove in a surface
word: groove
sense: to cut a groove in a surface
word: notch
sense: to record the score
word: keep
sense: to record the score
word: tally
sense: to acquire or gain
word: come by
word: earn
word: obtain
word: receive
sense: to extract a bribe
word: shake down
sense: to obtain a sexual favor
word: pull
sense: to provide with a musical score
word: soundtrack
Derived terms: scorable
score off
score-off
score on oneself
score out
score points
score through
score up
unscored