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Scrape   /skreɪp/   Listen
verb
Scrape  v. t.  (past & past part. scraped; pres. part. scraping)  
1.
To rub over the surface of (something) with a sharp or rough instrument; to rub over with something that roughens by removing portions of the surface; to grate harshly over; to abrade; to make even, or bring to a required condition or form, by moving the sharp edge of an instrument breadthwise over the surface with pressure, cutting away excesses and superfluous parts; to make smooth or clean; as, to scrape a bone with a knife; to scrape a metal plate to an even surface.
2.
To remove by rubbing or scraping (in the sense above). "I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock."
3.
To collect by, or as by, a process of scraping; to gather in small portions by laborious effort; hence, to acquire avariciously and save penuriously; often followed by together or up; as, to scrape money together. "The prelatical party complained that, to swell a number the nonconformists did not choose, but scrape, subscribers."
4.
To express disapprobation of, as a play, or to silence, as a speaker, by drawing the feet back and forth upon the floor; usually with down.
To scrape acquaintance, to seek acquaintance otherwise than by an introduction. "He tried to scrape acquaintance with her, but failed ignominiously."


Scrape  v. i.  
1.
To rub over the surface of anything with something which roughens or removes it, or which smooths or cleans it; to rub harshly and noisily along.
2.
To occupy one's self with getting laboriously; as, he scraped and saved until he became rich. "(Spend) their scraping fathers' gold."
3.
To play awkwardly and inharmoniously on a violin or like instrument.
4.
To draw back the right foot along the ground or floor when making a bow.


noun
Scrape  n.  
1.
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.
2.
A drawing back of the right foot when bowing; also, a bow made with that accompaniment.
3.
A disagreeable and embarrassing predicament out of which one can not get without undergoing, as it were, a painful rubbing or scraping; a perplexity; a difficulty. "The too eager pursuit of this his old enemy through thick and thin has led him into many of these scrapes."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Scrape" Quotes from Famous Books



... trees, so as to cut off retreat. This was the force we had struck so opportunely at the time before described. I inquired of Admiral Porter what he proposed to do, and he said he wanted to get out of that scrape as quickly as possible. He was actually working back when I met him, and, as we then had a sufficient force to cover his movement completely, he continued to back down Deer Creek. He informed me at one time things looked so critical that he had made up his mind to blow up the gunboats, ...
— Memoirs of Three Civil War Generals, Complete • U. S. Grant, W. T. Sherman, P. H. Sheridan
... "Scrape, hobble, slough, quagmire, hot water, hornet's nest; sea-, peck of troubles: pretty kettle of fish; pickle, stew, imbroglio mess, ado; false position; set fast, stand; dead,-lock,-set; fix, horns of a dilemma, cul de sac; hitch; stumbling block, ...
— Journalism for Women - A Practical Guide • E.A. Bennett
... it may not be the same one, but it was a cherry tree. The bear was up in the tree, getting cherries. He would reach out and pull in the branches with his paws, and then draw the little twigs, all covered with cherries, through his big mouth and scrape off a lot at once. That was what he was doing there, and he had broken the top of the tree half off. The boys heard the green limbs creaking and cracking, and the tree shaking under the bear's weight. So they stole up and stood on the wall ...
— When Life Was Young - At the Old Farm in Maine • C. A. Stephens
... youngest and by far the prettiest of the three sisters, was something of a problem. Though two years younger than Dolly, she had already had three or four love affairs, and when only sixteen, had been the heroine of a painful scrape—the sort of scrape which the people closely concerned try determinedly to forget, but which everyone about them remembers to his ...
— What Timmy Did • Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes
... As a general thing, our young friend was not given to melancholy moralizing, but in the present case, with the headsman's axe poised like the sword of Damocles above him by a single hair, he may be pardoned for reflecting that this world is all a fleeting show, and that he had got himself into a scrape, to which the plague was a trifle. And yet, with nervous impatience, he wished the dinner and his trial were over, his fate sealed, and his life ended at once, since it was to be ended soon. For the fulfillment of the first ...
— The Midnight Queen • May Agnes Fleming


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