scratch

«scratch» in Mova's school dictionary: to rub your skin with your nails, usually because it itches — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (scratch, scratches, scratched, scratching); noun (a scratch, scratches)

meaning for a pupil

1) To scratch is to rub your skin with your nails, usually because it itches. tree →

2) To scratch is to make a mark or cut on a surface with something sharp or rough. tree →

3) A scratch is a thin mark or small cut. tree →

4) «From scratch» means from the very beginning, with nothing ready-made. tree →

5) To scratch out means to cross out or rub out writing so that it can no longer be read. tree →

sense in the lessons

In health, try not to scratch insect bites or chickenpox spots — scratching can make them worse and let germs in; wash a scratch and cover it. In pet safety, cats may scratch if handled roughly, so stroke gently and wash cat scratches. In cooking and making, «from scratch» means from basic ingredients. Phrases: «scratch your head» (be puzzled), «not up to scratch» (not good enough), «scratch the surface».

examples

• Don't scratch your mosquito bite. tree →
• The cat scratched my arm. tree →
• There's a scratch on the car door. tree →
• Clean the scratch and put on a plaster. tree →
• We made the cake from scratch. tree →
• He scratched his head, puzzled. tree →
• My homework wasn't up to scratch. tree →
• Don't scratch the table with your fork. tree →
• "You must be scratched out, then," said Ole-Luk-Oie. tree →

note

Plural: scratches; third person: scratches (-es after «ch»). Do not confuse «scratch» (sharp, light marks) with «scrape» (rubbing off skin over a wider area).

In the corpora

• A scratch card is a quick lottery ticket; the "almost won" feeling is designed to make people buy another.
• Elephants sometimes use tools, such as a stick to scratch an itch or a leafy branch to swat flies.
• Donkeys love to roll in dust, which scratches itches, cleans the coat and keeps off flies.
• Ringed seals dig snow caves on the ice to hide their pups and keep breathing holes open by scratching the ice with strong claws.
• Chickens scratch and peck for seeds, worms and insects; they are omnivores and will even eat mice and small frogs.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «scratch» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.