Word: scrape Part of Speech: noun 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. A broad, shallow injury left by scraping (rather than a cut or a scratch). Labels: countable, uncountable Example: He fell on the sidewalk and got a scrape on his knee. 2. The sound or action of something being scraped. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: For a long while, the only sounds in the café were the scrapes of forks against old white plates and occasional slurps from coffee mugs. Example: The scrape of the plate against the stone woke him, and he looked across to find Isocrates there, replacing the food. 3. Something removed by being scraped; a thin layer of something such as butter on bread. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: A little solace came at tea time, in the shape of a double ration of bread—a whole, instead of a half-slice—with the delicious addition of a thin scrape of butter: […] Example: Or I could make a cup of tea and sit on the toilet with it – now we’re talking! And what about some toast and that last scrape of Marmite I hid… 4. A fight, especially a fistfight without weapons. Labels: countable, slang, uncountable Example: He got in a scrape with the school bully. 5. An awkward set of circumstances. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: I'm in a bit of a scrape — I've no money to buy my wife a birthday present. Example: Stuart made us all laugh - his mischievous stories were told throughout his career and in later days featured some very senior politicians and railway managers. He certainly got into many scrapes over the years. 6. A D and C or abortion; or, a miscarriage. Labels: UK, countable, slang, uncountable Example: 1972, in U.S. Senate Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, Abuse of psychiatry for political repression in the Soviet Union. Hearing, Ninety-second Congress, second session, United States Government Printing Office, page 127, It’s quite possible, in view of the diagnosis ‘danger of miscarriage’, that they might drag me off, give me a scrape and then say that the miscarriage began itself. Example: In expert hands abortion nowadays is almost the same as having a scrape (D & C) and due to improved techniques such as suction termination, and improved lighter anaesthetic, most women feel no worse than having a tooth out. 7. A shallow depression used by ground birds as a nest; a nest scrape. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: We knew from U. Weidmann’s work (1956) that Black-headed Gulls could be prevented from laying by offering them eggs on the empty scrape veil before […] Example: The plover lays its eggs in a scrape on the ground. ¶ […] ¶ Birds’ nests can be little more than a scrape in the ground or a delicate structure of plant material, mud, and saliva. 8. A shallow pit dug as a hideout. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: In between rounds, he dug a scrape for himself with his entrenching tool. 9. A shave. Labels: UK, countable, slang, uncountable Example: A'm goin to the barber's for a scrape. 10. Cheap butter. Labels: UK, obsolete, slang, uncountable 11. Butter laid on bread in the thinnest possible manner, as though laid on and scraped off again. Labels: UK, obsolete, slang, uncountable Example: “Got a nice bit of haddock for tonight. Thought I might do it with a poached egg, bit of pepper, bread and scrape” 12. A diminutive of the bend (especially of the bend sinister) which is half its width. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Alternative form: scarpe Example: 16. Azure, a Scrape Argent. 17. Gules, a Battune Argent. 13. An intermittent shallow pond in a wetland or floodplain, often artificially created to attract birds. Labels: countable, uncountable