scrape
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scrape
- /skɹeɪp/
Rhymes with -eɪp
Where it comes from
From Middle English scrapen, from Old Norse skrapa (“to scrape, scratch”) and Old English scrapian (“to scrape, scratch”), both from Proto-Germanic *skrapōną, *skrepaną (“to scrape, scratch”), from Proto-Indo-European *skrebʰ- (“to engrave”).
Cognate with Dutch schrapen (“to scrape”), schrappen (“to strike through; to cancel; to scrap”), schrabben (“to scratch”), German schrappen (“to scrape”), Danish skrabe (“to scrape”), Icelandic skrapa (“to scrape”), Walloon screper (“to scrape”), Latin scribō (“dig with a pen, draw, write”).
verb scrapes · scraping · scraped
-
To draw (an object, especially a sharp or angular one), along (something) while exerting pressure.
She scraped the wooden plate with her fingernails.
Similar: scuff, grate, scratch, compare drag
- To remove (something) by drawing an object along in this manner. Scrape the chewing gum off with a knife.
- To injure or damage by rubbing across a surface. She tripped on a rock and scraped her knee.
-
To barely manage to achieve or attain.
I scraped a pass in the exam.
Similar: labor, squeeze, limp, squeak · Opposite: stroll, breeze, ride, coast, romp
- To collect or gather, especially without regard to the quality of what is chosen. Just use whatever you can scrape together.
- To extract data by automated means from a format not intended to be machine-readable, such as a screenshot or a formatted web page. They didn't provide an API, so I simply scraped their website.
- To occupy oneself with getting laboriously. He scraped and saved until he became rich.
- To play awkwardly and inharmoniously on a violin or similar instrument. Some people covered their ears when he started to scrape his violin.
- To draw back the right foot along the ground or floor when making a bow. Yossarian went along in Milo Minderbinder's speeding M & M staff car to police headquarters to meet a swarthy, untidy police commissioner with a narrow black mustache and unbuttoned tunic who was fiddling with a stout woman with warts and two chins when they entered his office and who greeted Milo w
- To express disapprobation of (a play, etc.) or to silence (a speaker) by drawing the feet back and forth upon the floor; usually with down. When the debate was resumed, the tide ran so strongly against the accused that his friends were coughed and scraped down.
noun scrapes
- A broad, shallow injury left by scraping (rather than a cut or a scratch). He fell on the sidewalk and got a scrape on his knee.
-
The sound or action of something being scraped.
For a long while, the only sounds in the café were the scrapes of forks against old white plates and occasional slurps from coffee mugs.
Similar: scraping
-
Something removed by being scraped; a thin layer of something such as butter on bread.
A little solace came at tea time, in the shape of a double ration of bread—a whole, instead of a half-slice—with the delicious addition of a thin scrape of butter: […]
Similar: scraping
-
A fight, especially a fistfight without weapons.
He got in a scrape with the school bully.
Similar: altercation, brawl, fistfight, fight, fisticuffs, punch-up, scuffle
- An awkward set of circumstances. I'm in a bit of a scrape — I've no money to buy my wife a birthday present.
- A D and C or abortion; or, a miscarriage. 1972, in U.S. Senate Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, Abuse of psychiatry for political repression in the Soviet Union. Hearing, Ninety-second Congress, second session, United States Government Printing Office, page 127, It
- A shallow depression used by ground birds as a nest; a nest scrape. We knew from U. Weidmann’s work (1956) that Black-headed Gulls could be prevented from laying by offering them eggs on the empty scrape veil before […]
- A shallow pit dug as a hideout. In between rounds, he dug a scrape for himself with his entrenching tool.
- A shave. A'm goin to the barber's for a scrape.
- Cheap butter.
- Butter laid on bread in the thinnest possible manner, as though laid on and scraped off again. “Got a nice bit of haddock for tonight. Thought I might do it with a poached egg, bit of pepper, bread and scrape”
- A diminutive of the bend (especially of the bend sinister) which is half its width. Alternative form: scarpe
- An intermittent shallow pond in a wetland or floodplain, often artificially created to attract birds.
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: scrape up, scratching, scratch, abrade, abrasion, excoriation, stub, genuflect, kowtow, scar, come up, mark, skin, grate, scratch up, graze
Translations
Every language
verb draw an object along while exerting pressure
| Español | raspar |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 긁다 geukda |
| 日本語 | 削る kezuru, 擦る kosuru |
| 中文 | 刮 guā, 擦 cā, 刮削 guāxiāo, 削 xiāo |
| हिन्दी | कुरेदना kurednā, छीलना chīlnā |
| Português | arranhar, raspar |
| Français | gratter, racler |
| Deutsch | abkratzen, kratzen, schaben, scharren, schrammen |
| Italiano | grattare, graffiare |
| Ελληνικά | ξύνω xýno |
| Română | zgâria |
| Русский | скрести́ skrestí, поскрести́ poskrestí, цара́пать carápatʹ, поцара́пать pocarápatʹ, скря́бать skrjábatʹ, поскря́бать poskrjábatʹ |
| Tiếng Việt | nạo, cạo, gọt, gạt, vét, nạo vét |
| العربية | خَمَشَ ḵamaša |
verb injure by scraping
| Español | raspar, raer, choyar, chollar |
|---|---|
| 中文 | 擦傷 /擦伤 cāshāng |
| Português | ralar, esfolar, arranhar, raspar |
| Français | effleurer, égratigner, érafler |
| Русский | цара́пать carápatʹ, поцара́пать pocarápatʹ, оцара́пать ocarápatʹ |
| Tiếng Việt | quẹt, cọ |
verb cause to be in a certain state by scraping
| Русский | отскреба́ть otskrebátʹ, отскрести́ otskrestí, соскреба́ть soskrebátʹ, соскрести́ soskrestí, скобли́ть skoblítʹ, отскобли́ть otskoblítʹ |
|---|
noun injury
| Español | abrasión, rasponazo |
|---|---|
| Português | ralado |
| Deutsch | Schramme, Schürfwunde, Kratzer |
| Italiano | graffio, abrasione, sbucciatura |
| Русский | цара́пина carápina |
noun fight
| Español | pelea, piñada |
|---|---|
| Deutsch | Kampf, Boxkampf, Faustkampf |
| Italiano | rissa f bagarre |
| Русский | сты́чка stýčka, дра́ка dráka, потасо́вка potasóvka |
noun awkward set of circumstances
| Español | apuro, aprieto |
|---|---|
| Deutsch | Zwickmühle, Klemme |
| Italiano | pasticcio, guaio |
| Русский | неприя́тность neprijátnostʹ, затрудне́ние zatrudnénije |
Talk about this word "scrape." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/scrape. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. scrape. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/scrape "scrape." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/scrape.Cite this
@misc{scrape_2026,
title = {scrape},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/scrape},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
