(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.
Tentative
Definition:
(a.) Of or pertaining to a trial or trials; essaying; experimental.
(n.) An essay; a trial; an experiment.
Example Sentences:
(1) The pattern of the stressor that causes a change in the pitch can be often identified only tentatively, if there is no additional information.
(2) The tentative diagnosis "neurinoma of the hypoglossal nerve" was confirmed intraoperatively and histologically.
(3) These compounds were tentatively identified as two epimers at C-23 of 3 alpha,7 alpha,12 alpha-trihydroxy-5 beta-cholestano-26,23-lactone, which were probably artifacts formed from the corresponding tetrahydroxycholestanoic acids during the procedures for extraction after hydrolysis.
(4) Minimal breast cancer should include lobular carcinoma in situ (lobular neoplasia) and ductal carcinoma in situ regardless of nodal status, and (tentatively) invasive carcinoma smaller than 1 cm in total diameter, if axillary lymph nodes are not involved.
(5) Based on these data, a tentative life cycle for P. carinii in vitro has been proposed.
(6) Investigation of the mechanism of action of the synergistic effect between kanamycin and HA led to the tentative conclusion that potentiation was mediated through an initial alteration of cell permeability by the aminoglycoside antibiotic which permitted accumulation of each of the six HA into the cell, at which point each interacted with pyridoxal phosphate.
(7) Taking this into account, it was tentatively concluded that the mature NDP kinase consists of 147 amino acid residues with a molecular weight of 16,724.
(8) Based on these characteristics, we tentatively ascribe this activity to hepatic very low density lipoprotein, the serum counterpart of which is known to express many immunoregulatory properties.
(9) A tentative scheme of EBV-induced pathogenesis is discussed.
(10) Two new alleles, tentatively designated ORM1*14 and ORM2*13, were identified.
(11) In a previous paper, the main mutagenic compound isolated from the model reaction system D-fructose, DL-alanine and creatinine was tentatively identified as 4,8-DiMeIQx.
(12) Thus it can be tentatively suggested that it is prokallikrein A which is secreted into the pancreatic juice and represents the physiologically important zymogen.
(13) This epithelial cell was tentatively identified as primitive extraembryonic endoderm by its ultrastructural appearance and its possession of cytokeratin intermediate filaments.
(14) Gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric analysis of aglycones released from this conjugate revealed the presence of 3 beta, 5 alpha-tetrahydroaldosterone and an another aglycone, tentatively identified as 21-deoxy-tetrahydroaldosterone.
(15) Iron deficiency has been tentatively excluded as a cause of this anaemia by measurement of serum ferritin levels.
(16) Meiosis is too complex to have arisen at once full blown and a stepwise scheme is proposed for its evolution, where each step is believed to have provided an immediate selective advantage: (1) The first step in this tentative sequence is the development of a haploidization process by means of a rapid series of mitotic non-disjunctions, turned on under conditions where haploidy is favored.
(17) Results of a tentative estimates as to the economic advantages offered by the experimental ASPEP and conditions required to achieve the maximum economic effect by using this system are given.
(18) In 6 cases only a tentative diagnosis of lymphoepitheloid cell malignant lymphoma could be made.
(19) Urine from normal children showed a small acid-labile (at 100 degrees C) peak at the ASA position, which we tentatively assign to genuine ASA.
(20) We tentatively suggest that a preferential loss of contrast sensitivity to horizontal gratings might be due to a functional abnormality in the striate cortex that relatively spares the extrastriate cortex.