Search the Dictionary

To mark with lines, scratches, or notches; to cut notches or furrows in; to notch; to scratch; to furrow; as, to score timber for hewing; to score the back with a lash. Let us score their backs. Shak. A briar in that tangled wilderness Had scored her white right hand. M. Arnold.

To scrape, paw, or scratch with the hands; to proceed by clawing with the hands and feet; to scramble; as, to scrabble up a cliff or a tree. Now after a while Little-faith came to himself, and getting up made shift to scrabble on his way. Bunyan.

The act of scraping; also, the effect of scraping, as a scratch, or a harsh sound; as, a noisy scrape on the floor; a scrape of a pen.

To scratch. [Obs.] Burton.

To draw or mark awkwardly and irregularly; to write hastily and carelessly; to scratch; to scribble; as, to scrawl a letter. His name, scrawled by himself. Macaulay.

Scratched; -- said of decorative painting of a certain style, in which a white overland surface is cut or scratched through, so as to form the design from a dark ground underneath.

To scratch; to rub. [Obs.] Farquhar.

The fine powder or mark yielded by a mineral when scratched or rubbed against a harder surface, the color of which is sometimes a distinguishing character.

ts of pricking-up, floating, and a finishing coat; or, as called in the United States, a scratch coat, browning, and finishing coat.

port reproachfully; to taunt or insult one with. -- Tooth and nail, as if by biting and scratching; with one's utmost power; by all possible means. L'Estrange. "I shall fight tooth and nail for international copyright." Charles Reade. -- Tooth coralline (Zoöl.), any sertularian hydroid. -- Tooth edge, the sensation…

To scratch to pieces. [Obs.] Chaucer.

To scratch. [Prov. Eng.] Wright.