Meaning of Scratch | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A disruption, mark or shallow cut on a surface made by scratching.
   countable, uncountable
2. A free educational visual programming language developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab.
3. A surname.
4. An act of scratching the skin to alleviate an itch or irritation.
   countable, uncountable
5. A starting line (originally and simply, a line scratched in the ground), as in boxing.
   countable, uncountable
6. 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.
   countable, uncountable
7. The last riders to depart in a handicap race.
   countable, uncountable
8. An aberration.
   countable, uncountable
9. A foul in pool, as where the cue ball is put into a pocket or jumps off the table.
   countable, uncountable
10. A shot which scores by chance and not as intended by the player; a fluke.
    US, archaic, countable, slang, uncountable
11. A horse withdrawn from a race prior to the start.
    countable, uncountable
12. A minor injury.
    countable, uncountable
13. Money; especially, cash.
    countable, slang, uncountable
14. A feed, usually a mixture of a few common grains, given to chickens.
    countable, uncountable
15. 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.
    countable, in-plural, uncountable
16. A scratch wig.
    countable, historical, uncountable
17. A genre of Virgin Islander music, better known as fungi.
    countable, uncountable
18. Poor handwriting; especially, illegibly so.
    countable, uncountable
19. Nothing, zero. Used especially in card games or sports, but also expressions like "from scatch".
    countable, uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“I can’t believe there is a scratch in the paint already.”

“Her skin was covered with tiny scratches.”

“God forbid a shallow scratch should drive / The prince of Wales from such a field as this.”

“The coarse file[…]makes deep scratches in the work.”

“These nails with scratches deform my breast.”

“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.”

“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,[…].”

“The dog sat up and had a good scratch.”

“He started a few seconds before the time and came up in speed to the scratch at the moment appointed.”

“Eventually the elephant and camel were despatched by themselves with two laps start of the bicyclist and horse, the motor car being scratch.”

“There were two scratches in race 8, which reduced the field from nine horses to seven.”

“It's just a scratch!”

“He and Bruce cooked up a script together, and Bruce flew home to raise the scratch.”

“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[…].”

“[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.”

“The handwriting in his paper is completely different when compared to his scratch on the note you gave me”

CEFR level