Word: scrape Part of Speech: verb Etymology: From Middle English scrapen, from Old Norse skrapa (“to scrape, scratch”) and Old English scrapian (“to scrape, scratch”), both from Proto-Germanic *skrapōną, *skrepaną (“to scrape, scratch”), from Proto-Indo-European *skrebʰ- (“to engrave”). Cognate with Dutch schrapen (“to scrape”), schrappen (“to strike through; to cancel; to scrap”), schrabben (“to scratch”), German schrappen (“to scrape”), Danish skrabe (“to scrape”), Icelandic skrapa (“to scrape”), Walloon screper (“to scrape”), Latin scribō (“dig with a pen, draw, write”). Pronunciation: /skɹeɪp/ 1. To draw (an object, especially a sharp or angular one), along (something) while exerting pressure. Labels: ambitransitive Example: She scraped the wooden plate with her fingernails. Example: That car often scrapes the shallowest of humps because of its low ground clearance. 2. To remove (something) by drawing an object along in this manner. Labels: transitive Example: Scrape the chewing gum off with a knife. 3. To injure or damage by rubbing across a surface. Labels: transitive Example: She tripped on a rock and scraped her knee. Example: We went tip-toeing along a path amongst the trees back towards the end of the widow's garden, stooping down so as the branches wouldn't scrape our heads. 4. To barely manage to achieve or attain. Labels: transitive Example: I scraped a pass in the exam. 5. To collect or gather, especially without regard to the quality of what is chosen. Labels: transitive Example: Just use whatever you can scrape together. 6. To extract data by automated means from a format not intended to be machine-readable, such as a screenshot or a formatted web page. Labels: transitive Example: They didn't provide an API, so I simply scraped their website. Example: The threat of the impending axe horrified Scott. He and his supporters hastily “scraped” as many Geocities^([sic]) pages as they could, creating a 641-gigabyte archive that initially circulated on file-sharing networks. 7. To occupy oneself with getting laboriously. Labels: intransitive Example: He scraped and saved until he became rich. Example: And he shall spend mine honour with his shame, As thriftless sons their scraping fathers' gold 8. To play awkwardly and inharmoniously on a violin or similar instrument. Labels: ambitransitive Example: Some people covered their ears when he started to scrape his violin. Example: At that time the Grand Duke had only two occupations. One was to scrape the violin, the other to train spaniels for hunting. 9. To draw back the right foot along the ground or floor when making a bow. Labels: intransitive Example: Yossarian went along in Milo Minderbinder's speeding M & M staff car to police headquarters to meet a swarthy, untidy police commissioner with a narrow black mustache and unbuttoned tunic who was fiddling with a stout woman with warts and two chins when they entered his office and who greeted Milo with warm surprise and bowed and scraped in obscene servility as though Milo were some elegant marquis. 10. To express disapprobation of (a play, etc.) or to silence (a speaker) by drawing the feet back and forth upon the floor; usually with down. Example: When the debate was resumed, the tide ran so strongly against the accused that his friends were coughed and scraped down.