Definition of Scratch

Scratch

In various sports, the line from which the start is made, except in the case of contestants receiving a distance handicap.

To rub and tear or mark the surface of with something sharp or ragged; to scrape, roughen, or wound slightly by drawing something pointed or rough across, as the claws, the nails, a pin, or the like.

To write or draw hastily or awkwardly.

To cancel by drawing one or more lines through, as the name of a candidate upon a ballot, or of a horse in a list; hence, to erase; to efface; -- often with out.

To dig or excavate with the claws; as, some animals scratch holes, in which they burrow.

To use the claws or nails in tearing or in digging; to make scratches.

To score, not by skillful play but by some fortunate chance of the game.

A break in the surface of a thing made by scratching, or by rubbing with anything pointed or rough; a slight wound, mark, furrow, or incision.

A line across the prize ring; up to which boxers are brought when they join fight; hence, test, trial, or proof of courage; as, to bring to the scratch; to come up to the scratch.

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.

A kind of wig covering only a portion of the head.

A shot which scores by chance and not as intended by the player; a fluke.

Made, done, or happening by chance; arranged with little or no preparation; determined by circumstances; haphazard; as, a scratch team; a scratch crew for a boat race; a scratch shot in billiards.

Related Definitions:

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Scratch Quotations

If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.
Carl Sagan

I have a simple philosophy: Fill what's empty. Empty what's full. Scratch where it itches.
Alice Roosevelt Longworth

Scratch a Yale man with both hands and you'll be lucky to find a coast-guard. Usually you find nothing at all.
F. Scott Fitzgerald

No one lives long enough to learn everything they need to learn starting from scratch. To be successful, we absolutely, positively have to find people who have already paid the price to learn the things that we need to learn to achieve our goals.
Brian Tracy

Happiness is having a scratch for every itch.
Ogden Nash

Americans admire a people who can scratch a desert and produce a garden. The Israelis have shown qualities that Americans identify with: guts, patriotism, idealism, a passion for freedom. I have seen it. I know. I believe that.
Richard M. Nixon

I'm just starting to scratch the surface of what really makes me happy and it's taken me a while to admit that acting like a little child and being a jerk and a punk is fun.
Leonardo DiCaprio

Vig used to call me 'Elf boy', and I'd call him 'filthy human'. As an Elf, I never got a scratch on me, never got dirty. And Vig would come out with blood and sweat all over him. And he'd say to me, 'Oh, go manicure your nails.'
Orlando Bloom

Scratch a dog and you'll find a permanent job.
Franklin P. Jones

We'll take what the other team gives us. We'll scratch where it itches.
Hayden Fry

My mom used to make everything. She had a great garden and composted and made everything from scratch - peanut butter, bread, jelly, everything. I don't know how she did it because all those things take time and love and labour. I only do half the stuff she does - but there's still time.
Julia Roberts

The opportunity for an entrepreneur to start a company from scratch today is abysmal.
David Geffen

You don't hear things that are bad about your company unless you ask. It is easy to hear good tidings, but you have to scratch to get the bad news.
Thomas J. Watson

Not only was it nearly impossible to hear because of these huge rubber ears we had to wear, but we also had these huge furry hands which were absolutely useless, especially if you had to scratch yourself.
Helena Bonham Carter

After about 20 years of marriage, I'm finally starting to scratch the surface of what women want. And I think the answer lies somewhere between conversation and chocolate.
Mel Gibson

It is expensive to start from scratch though.
David Leslie

I love to act. I need to act. It's the big itch I need to scratch.
Christopher Meloni

Few people even scratch the surface, much less exhaust the contemplation of their own experience.
Randolph Bourne

My first course came and I put down my book, and I just happened to put up my hand to scratch my head and discovered that my toupee had been blown by the wind and was folded over backwards on the top of my head!
Derek Jacobi

Sometimes my boyfriend would write the lyrics and I would write the melody, and other times I would start from scratch. Or sometimes I would take a local poem and put that to music.
Carly Simon

For a while we were chasing a book by Graham Greene to do Brighton Rock as a musical. We didn't get the rights, so we decided to create something from scratch, with Jonathan. By that time we were big fans of his work.
Neil Tennant

I've been fortunate to come on places where the question isn't why did I do it? The question to me is always, why didn't anybody else do it before me? Those are the ones that I scratch my head about.
Todd McFarlane

So someday in the near future hopefully rather than having a foot or a leg amputated we'll just give you an injection of the cells and restore the blood flow. We've also created entire tubes of red blood cells from scratch in the laboratory. So there are a lot of exciting things in the pipeline.
Robert Lanza

I will never be able to create a budget from scratch with the amount of time that I have, but my instructions remain the same: Give me a budget that has no new revenue.
Christine Gregoire

South Vietnam had to be built from scratch and, from the very beginning, depended far too much on the Western superpowers. As in the case of a person on public welfare, this dependency, which became greater with each day, was quite difficult to shake.
Nguyen Cao Ky

Scratch a Russian, and you'll find a peasant.
Milla Jovovich

When the generation after me started getting on the cut, a lot of them would call me over to hang out or go jam and scratch and they were always separate from each other.
Eric San

I had to go into a studio and compose and write and press up 12 songs in 14 hours. When you're recording a song from scratch it takes you 14 hours to do just one song.
Grandmaster Flash

All you have to know is mathematically how many times to scratch it and when to let it go - when certain things will enhance the record you're listening to.
Grandmaster Flash

A personal offense is like a scratch on a phonograph record. I couldn't move my thoughts beyond my pain. It kept repeating, as if I were stuck within its grooves. There was only one way to play beyond it. I had to forgive them, so my heart could take its form again.
Laurel Lee

More Scratch Quotations

Scratch Translations

scratch in Afrikaans is krap
scratch in Danish is ridse, kradse, skrabe
scratch in Dutch is klauwen, krabben, krauwen, scharrelen
scratch in Italian is graffio, verniciare, graffiare, scalfire
scratch in Portuguese is risco

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