(v. t.) To rub and tear or mark the surface of with something sharp or ragged; to scrape, roughen, or wound slightly by drawing something pointed or rough across, as the claws, the nails, a pin, or the like.
(v. t.) To write or draw hastily or awkwardly.
(v. t.) To cancel by drawing one or more lines through, as the name of a candidate upon a ballot, or of a horse in a list; hence, to erase; to efface; -- often with out.
(v. t.) To dig or excavate with the claws; as, some animals scratch holes, in which they burrow.
(v. i.) To use the claws or nails in tearing or in digging; to make scratches.
(v. i.) To score, not by skillful play but by some fortunate chance of the game.
(n.) A break in the surface of a thing made by scratching, or by rubbing with anything pointed or rough; a slight wound, mark, furrow, or incision.
(n.) A line across the prize ring; up to which boxers are brought when they join fight; hence, test, trial, or proof of courage; as, to bring to the scratch; to come up to the scratch.
(n.) Minute, but tender and troublesome, excoriations, covered with scabs, upon the heels of horses which have been used where it is very wet or muddy.
(n.) A kind of wig covering only a portion of the head.
(n.) A shot which scores by chance and not as intended by the player; a fluke.
(a.) Made, done, or happening by chance; arranged with little or no preparation; determined by circumstances; haphazard; as, a scratch team; a scratch crew for a boat race; a scratch shot in billiards.
Example Sentences:
(1) To test the hypothesis that EAA agonists are involved in transmission of nociceptive information in the spinal cord, we tested the effect of various opioid, sigma and phencyclidine compounds on the action of NMDA in the tail-flick, hot-plate and biting and scratching nociceptive tests.
(2) Some organization schemes concerning locomotor and scratching rhythmicity generators are considered, such as: two half-centres with reciprocal inhibitory connections and tonic excitatory influences on these half-centres: two half-centres with inhibitory-excitatory connections and tonic excitatory influences on one half-centre; ring structures consisting of more than two functional groups of neurons with excitatory and inhibitory connections between them.
(3) In an interview with the Guardian, James Hansen, the world's pre-eminent climate scientist, said any agreement likely to emerge from the negotiations would be so deeply flawed that it would be better to start again from scratch.
(4) The satisfaction derived from smoking depends not only on the pharmacological effects of nicotine but also the sensory stimulation from smoke inhalation, particularly the tracheal 'scratch'.
(5) The pathogenesis of the prolific mite population is unclear, but either a specific immunologic deficit or the inability to effectively eliminate the mites by scratching is a plausible possibility.
(6) Forty-three percent of dog bites, and 52% of cat bites-scratches were provoked, that is, happened while the victim was interacting with the animal.
(7) If the NHS was being created from scratch, primary and community care would be treated as one service.
(8) The timing of knee extensor activity within the hip cycle is different for each form of the scratch (Robertson et al., 1985); thus, the sign of the reset cannot be predicted from the timing of the stimulus relative to the knee extensor cycle.
(9) We report a patient with cat scratch disease who presented with multiple scattered nodular lesions on the legs.
(10) Application of APV to a midbody segment also reduced the magnitude of temporal summation in the scratch circuit in response to electrical stimuli delivered to the shell at 4- to 5-s intervals.
(11) Windshields, spectacles, contact lenses, lashes, an excessive tear meniscus, intraocular lens scratches, and posterior capsular opacification are possible causes that can be easily identified and treated.
(12) Ventral UVA pre-exposure did not appear to affect dorsal skin irritation as expressed by scratch marks.
(13) A rare vascular proliferation found as a skin lesion in patients suffering from the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome and sometimes referred to as epithelioid angiomatosis is believed to be a manifestation of infection by the cat scratch bacillus or a related organism.
(14) We have made Afghanistan stronger by building up from scratch strong security forces.
(15) Immunoperoxidase staining with an antiserum raised against the cat-scratch disease bacillus stained these organisms in all patients.
(16) licking, scratching, grooming, head and limb movements), a reaction termed immobility.
(17) These data suggest that hindlimb scratching induced by 5-HT agonists may not be centrally mediated but rather may be mediated by a neuronal 5-HT1A receptor localized outside the blood-brain barrier.
(18) In contrast, after weaning they showed a significant increment in the duration of face-washing, head-washing, fur licking and body-scratching.
(19) A strong correlation was found between reduction in scratching and improvement in skin status.
(20) But screens already demonstrated by GT can withstand scratches from concrete.
Scratchy
Definition:
(a.) Characterized by scratches.
Example Sentences:
(1) That cameo seemed horribly emblematic of a thoroughly underwhelming opening half which ended unadorned by a single shot on target, but almost imperceptibly something was shifting, and Klopp’s demeanour slowly shifted from jovially laid-back to scratchy and irritable.
(2) All round Europe there have been political earthquakes in a volatile anti-politics age: the surprise is that Britain’s scratchy, irascible electorate hasn’t expressed its underlying anger that ordinary people paid the price for the bankers’ crash.
(3) Joseph Morpurgo's solo hour starts with scratchy old American TV footage.
(4) But as expected, the scratchy blankets are covered in hairs, the food is poor and the bathroom horrible (we queue to clean our teeth at the one working tap while a man washes his feet at it).
(5) And they took me into a theatre, and I saw this scratchy, black and white duke with no sound and a terrible track and all this camera noise of a movie that lasted three and a half hours at that time or something, and everybody was speaking a different language.
(6) Hard and scratchy foods also are consumed frequently.
(7) By setting aside the past, this was the day Miliband took full command of his party, a shadow cabinet behind him no longer scratchy with a few doubters.
(8) Dryness was reported more frequently than the symptoms scratchy and watery (p less than 0.001).
(9) Three months later, Stern was holding a conference call with reporters on a scratchy phone line from Havana.
(10) In a scratchy first half it took 25 minutes for Argentina to create a chance, Higuaín heading over from Messi’s whipped free-kick, but it was the Swiss who had the better opening two minutes later, Granit Xhaka shooting low but straight at Sergio Romero from a Shaqiri cutback.
(11) In his scratchy address, the then-head of News Corp in Europe and Asia laid into the BBCarguing: "The scope of its activities and ambitions is chilling."
(12) One aspect of England's scratchy record in World Cup penalty shoot-outs since they won the trophy in 1966 perhaps doesn't require a knowledge of high-level mathematics.
(13) What has been happening in West Everton this morning – this scritchy-scratchy Vivaldi – is more than just a music workshop.
(14) Serosis, sweating, scratchy clothes, allergy, infection, scratching, allergic contact dermatitis, anxiety, and coexisting disease are potential flare factors.
(15) Mourinho spoke about the importance of practising the transitions from attack to defence and defence to attack, and introduced to public consciousness the concept of “resting on the ball”, passing it around at the back to give players time to recuperate, but his football was scratchy and, frankly, a little dull.
(16) He even says "I'm killing indie rap" at one point, and it's true: with his mellow flow and lyrics about his tough street life over scratchy and hissy beats from Doom, Dilla and DJ Premier – which were themselves based on ancient crate-dusty soul and jazz vinyl samples – Nehru is the anti-Earl Sweatshirt .
(17) Updated at 3.34pm BST 3.19pm BST 68th over: England 157-6 (Ali 51, Prior 8) Prasad returns, and engages Ali's bat more than Eranga, but he's right on top of things, playing the ball almost from in the crease; though this has been a slow innings, it's not been a scratchy one; he's played very few false shots.
(18) Milton's announcement about the consultation came towards the end of a scratchy debate in which Dorries said Cameron had initially encouraged her.
(19) I think we were just scratchy and hackles up and defensive.
(20) The child with no complaints other than discharge probably has a conjunctivitis, while the child with photophobia and a scratchy sensation should make one search for either a foreign body or a corneal problem.