- 1[transitive, intransitive] to rub your skin with your nails, usually because it is itching scratch something/yourself John yawned and scratched his chin. The dog scratched itself behind the ear. scratch (at something) Try not to scratch. She scratched at the insect bites on her arm. cut skin
- 2[transitive, intransitive] to cut or damage your skin slightly with something sharp scratch (somebody/something/yourself) I'd scratched my leg and it was bleeding. Does the cat scratch? scratch somebody/something/yourself on something She scratched herself on a nail.
- 3[transitive] scratch something to damage the surface of something, especially by accident, by making thin, shallow marks on it Be careful not to scratch the furniture. The car's paintwork is badly scratched. make/remove mark
- 4[transitive] scratch something + adv./prep. to make or remove a mark, etc. on something deliberately, by rubbing it with something hard or sharp They scratched lines in the dirt to mark out a goal. Some graffiti had been scratched on the back of the door. We scratched some of the dirt away. (figurative) You can scratch my name off the list. make sound
- 5[intransitive] (+ adv./prep.) to make an irritating noise by rubbing something with something sharp His pen scratched away on the paper. We could hear mice scratching behind the wall. a living
- 6[transitive] scratch a living to make enough money to live on, but with difficulty 75% of the population scratches a living from the soil. cancel
- 7[transitive, intransitive] to decide that something cannot happen, or someone or something cannot take part in something, before it starts scratch somebody/something to scratch a rocket launch scratch somebody/something (from something) The horse was scratched from the race because of injury. Idioms
verb jump to other results
NAmE//skrætʃ//
Verb Forms present simple I / you / we / they scratch he / she / it scratches
past simple scratched
-ing form scratching
to think hard in order to find an answer to something Experts have been scratching their heads over the increase in teenage crime.
to deal with, understand, or find out about only a small part of a subject or problem We left feeling that we had just scratched the surface of this fascinating country.
used to say that if someone helps you, you will help them, even if this is unfair to others Phrasal Verbsscratch aroundscratch out
Check pronunciation: scratch