scratch
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: skrăch
ipa: /skɹæt͡ʃ/
rhymes: -ætʃ
Forms: form: scratches
Etymology: From Middle English scracchen, of uncertain origin. Probably a blend of Middle English scratten (“to scratch”) and cracchen (“to scratch”). More at scrat and cratch.
Senses: examples: text: I can’t believe there is a scratch in the paint already.
text: Her skin was covered with tiny scratches.
text: God forbid a shallow scratch should drive / The prince of Wales from such a field as this.
ref: 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iv]:
text: The coarse file[…]makes deep scratches in the work.
ref: 1677–1683, Joseph Moxon, “(please specify the page)”, in Mechanick Exercises, or The Doctrine of Handy-Works, […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: […] Joseph Moxon, published 1678–1683, →OCLC:
text: These nails with scratches deform my breast.
ref: 1709, Matthew Prior, Henry and Emma, line 503:
text: Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language, he expressed the important words by an initial, a medial, or a final consonant, and made scratches for all the words between; his clerks, however, understood him very well.
ref: 1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:
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:
glosses: A disruption, mark or shallow cut on a surface made by scratching.
examples: text: The dog sat up and had a good scratch.
glosses: An act of scratching the skin to alleviate an itch or irritation.
examples: text: He started a few seconds before the time and came up in speed to the scratch at the moment appointed.
ref: 1820, Reuben Percy, Sholto Percy, The Percy Anecdotes:
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: A starting line (originally and simply, a line scratched in the ground), as in boxing.
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: A technical error of touching or surpassing the starting mark prior to the official start signal in the sporting events of long jump, discus, hammer throw, shot put, and similar. Originally the starting mark was a scratch on the ground but is now a board or precisely indicated mark.
examples: text: Eventually the elephant and camel were despatched by themselves with two laps start of the bicyclist and horse, the motor car being scratch.
ref: 1901, “Gleanings”, in The Agricultural Journal and Mining Record, volume 4, number 1, page 31:
topics: cycling
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: The last riders to depart in a handicap race.
topics: ball-games
billiards
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: An aberration.
A foul in pool, as where the cue ball is put into a pocket or jumps off the table.
topics: ball-games
billiards
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: An aberration.
A shot which scores by chance and not as intended by the player; a fluke.
examples: text: There were two scratches in race 8, which reduced the field from nine horses to seven.
topics: hobbies
horse-racing
horseracing
horses
lifestyle
pets
racing
sports
glosses: A horse withdrawn from a race prior to the start.
examples: text: It's just a scratch!
glosses: A minor injury.
examples: text: He and Bruce cooked up a script together, and Bruce flew home to raise the scratch.
ref: 2006, Clive James, North Face of Soho, Picador, published 2007, page 153:
glosses: Money.
glosses: A feed, usually a mixture of a few common grains, given to chickens.
examples: text: These are exemplified in the scurfy, scaly affections which appear in the bend of the knee (mallenders) and hock (sallenders) and on the lower parts of the limbs, by scratches, and by a scaly exfoliation[…].
ref: 1887, James Law, The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser:
glosses: Minute, but tender and troublesome, excoriations, covered with scabs, upon the heels of horses which have been used where it is very wet or muddy.
examples: text: [H]e turned to him with a dejected Face, and said ‘ – pray Sir, – could you touch up This a little?’ taking hold of his frightful scratch.
ref: 1775, Frances Burney, Journals & Letters, Penguin 2001, 26 March
glosses: A scratch wig.
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: A genre of Virgin Islander music, better known as fungi.
examples: text: The handwriting in his paper is completely different when compared to his scratch on the note you gave me
ref: 2017, P. L. Hawks, I Love Paris:
glosses: Scrawled or illegible handwriting; chicken scratch.
glosses: Nothing, zero. Used especially in card games or sports, but also expressions like "from scatch".
Synonyms: sense: Virgin Islander music
word: fungi
sense: Virgin Islander music
word: quelbe
Derived terms: cat scratch
cat scratch disease
cat-scratch fever
chicken scratch
come to the scratch
needle scratch
no great scratch
Old Scratch
scratchband
scratch-built
scratch card
scratch comma
scratch hit
scratch made
scratch plough
scratch print
scratch-proof
scratch race
scratch team
start from scratch
tight scratch
up to scratch
without a scratch