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cratch

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cratch¹

  • /kɹæt͡ʃ/

Rhymes with -ætʃ

Where it comes from

From Middle English cratchen, cracchen (“to scratch”), alteration of *cratsen (“to scratch”), from Old Norse *kratsa or Middle Low German kratsen, krassen (“to scratch”), both ultimately from Old High German krazzōn, crazōn (“to scratch”), from Proto-West Germanic *krattōn (“to scratch”), ultimately of uncertain, likely onomatopoeic origin, and/or derived from Proto-Indo-European *ger- (“to scratch, carve, cut”). Cognate with Icelandic krota (“to engrave”). Compare also Icelandic krassa (“to scrawl”), Danish kradse (“to scratch, scrape, claw”), Swedish kratsa (“to scratch”), Dutch kratsen (“to scratch”), German kratzen (“to scratch”), and Albanian gërresë (“rasp, scraper”). Doublet of grate.

verb cratches · cratching · cratched

  1. obsolete To scratch. A good pair of nails to cratch and claw.

cratch²

  • /kɹæt͡ʃ/

Rhymes with -ætʃ

Where it comes from

From Middle English cratche, cracche, crecche (“crib”), from Old French creche (“crib, manger”), from Frankish *krippjā, *kribbjā (“crib”), from Proto-Germanic *kribjǭ. More at creche, crib.

noun cratches

  1. obsolete A grated crib or manger. Begin from first where He encradled was, / In simple cratch, wrapt in a wad of hay.
  2. The vertical planks at the forward end of the hold of a traditional English narrowboat which constrain the cargo and support the top plank or walkway. The fore-end of the cargo space terminates in a triangular board, called the cratch, raised to the same height as the cabin roof and connected to it […]

cratch³

  • /kɹæt͡ʃ/

Rhymes with -ætʃ

Where it comes from

From Etymology 1.

noun cratches

  1. A swelling on a horse's pastern, under the fetlock.

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MLA

"cratch." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/cratch. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

cratch. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/cratch

Chicago

"cratch." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/cratch.

BibTeX
@misc{cratch_2026,
  title = {cratch},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/cratch},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}