- [countable] a mark, a cut or an injury made by scratching somebody’s skin or the surface of something
- Her hands were covered in scratches from the brambles.
- a scratch on the paintwork
- It's only a scratch (= a very slight injury).
- without a scratch He escaped without a scratch (= was not hurt at all).
Extra ExamplesTopics Health problemsb2- I've got some nasty scratches on my legs.
- Powdered cleansers will leave scratches on the glass.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- deep
- long
- nasty
- …
- have
- get
- leave
- …
- mark
- without a scratch
- [singular] the unpleasant sound of something sharp or rough being rubbed against a surface
- [singular] the act of scratching a part of your body when it itches
- Go on, have a good scratch!
mark/cut
sound
with your nails
Word Originlate Middle English: probably a blend of the synonymous dialect words scrat and cratch, both of uncertain origin; compare with Middle Low German kratsen and Old High German krazzōn.
Idioms
See scratch in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionaryfrom scratch
- without any previous preparation or knowledge
- I learned German from scratch in six months.
- He built the orchestra up from scratch.
- from the very beginning, not using any of the work done earlier
- They decided to dismantle the machine and start again from scratch.
up to scratch
- as good as something/somebody should be synonym satisfactory
- His work simply isn't up to scratch.
- It'll take months to bring the band up to scratch.
Check pronunciation:
scratch