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SCR 
SCR 
Pregnant with thousands flits the scrap unseen,' 
And silent sells a king, or buys a queen. Pope. 
To SCRAPE, v. a. [ycpeopan, Saxon; schrapen, 
Dutch; 'sascropitigh, Erse.] To deprive of the surface by 
the light action of a sharp instrument, used with the edge 
almost perpendicular.—These hard woods are more properly 
scraped than planed. Moxon. —To take away by scraping; 
to erase.—Bread for a toast lay on the coals; and, if toasted 
quite through, scrape off the burnt side, and serve it up. 
Swift. —To act upon any surface with a harsh noise. 
The chiming clocks to dinner call; 
A hundred footsteps scrape the marble hall. Pope. 
To gain by great efforts, or penurious or trifling diligence. 
—Unhappy those who hunt for a party, and scrape together 
out of every author all those things only which favour their 
own tenets. Watts. 
To SCRAPE, v. n. To make a harsh noise. To play 
ill on a fiddle. To make an awkward bow. Ainsworth. 
To Scrape Acquaintance. A low phrase.—To curry 
favour, or insinuate into one’s familiarity. 
SCRAPE, s. [skrap, Swedish. “ Dragaen in i skraeper, 
to draw any one into difficulties.” Lye.] The sound of 
the foot drawn over the floor. A bow. 
SCRAPE, a mountain of Scotland, in the county of 
Peebles, 2800 feet above the level of the sea. 
SCRA'PER, s. An instrument with which any thing is 
scraped.—An instrument usually standing without the door 
of a house for the purpose of scraping the dirt off the shoes 
of those entering.—Never clean your shoes on the scraper, 
but in the entry, and the scraper will last the longer.—An 
instrument used in mezzotinto engraving. Swift. —A 
miser; a man intent on getting money. 
Be thrifty, but not covetous; therefore give 
Thy need, thine honour, and thy friend his due: 
Never was scraper brave man. Get to live; 
Then live, and use it; else it is not true 
That thou hast gotten : surely use alone 
Makes money not a contemptible stone. Herbert. 
A fiddler.'—Out! ye sempiternal scrapers. Cowley. — 
Have wild boars or dolphins the least emotion at the most 
elaborated strains of your modern scrapers, all which have 
been tamed and humanized by ancient musicians ? Ar- 
buthnot. 
SCRAPTOFT, a parish of England, county of Leicester; 
4 miles east-by-north of Leicester. 
SCRAT, s. [j-cpitca, Sax.] An hermaphrodite. Unused. 
It is said to have been applied to the devil. Hence the cor¬ 
ruption “ old scratch." 
To SCRAT, v. a. [ escrat, Anglo-Norman. This form 
is still preserved in our northern word scraut for scratch ; 
kratsa, Swedish.] To scratch.—It is an ordinary thing for 
women to scrat the faces of such as they suspect. Burton. 
To SCRAT, v. n. To rake; to search. 
Ambitious mind a world of wealth would have. 
So scrats, and scrapes, for scorfe and scornie drosse. 
Mir. for Mag. 
To SCRATCH, v. a. [kratzen, Germ., kratza, Su. 
Welch, crach, scabies. We had formerly the verb cratch, 
in this sense.] To tear or mark with slight incisions ragged 
and uneven. 
The lab’ring swain 
Scratch'd with a rake a furrow for his grain 
And cover’d with hishand the shallow seed again. Dryden. 
To tear with the nails. 
How can I tell but that his talons may 
Yet scratch my son, or rend his tender hand ? Spenser. 
To wound slightly.—To hurt slightly with any thing 
pointed or keen. 
Daphne, roaming through a thorny wood, 
Scratching her legs, that one shall swear she bleeds. 
Shakspeare. 
To rub with the nails. 
Be mindful when invention fails, 
To scratch your head, and bite your nails. Swift. 
To write or draw aukwardly.—If any of their labourers 
can scratch out a pamphlet, they desire no wit, style, or 
argument Swift. 
SCRATCH, s. An incision ragged and shallow.—The 
smaller the particles of those substances are, the smaller will 
be the scratches, by which they continually fret and wear 
away the glass until it be polished. Bacon. —Laceration 
with the nails. 
These nails with scratches shall deform my breast. 
Lest by my look or colour be express’d 
The mark of aught high-born, or ever better dress’d. Prior. 
A slight wound. 
Heaven forbid a shallow scratch should drive 
The prince of Wales from such a field as this. Shakspeare. 
SCRATCH-WORK, or Scraffiata, a way of painting in 
fresco, by preparing a black ground, on which is laid a white 
plaster; which white being taken off with an iron bodkin, 
the black appears through the holes, and serves for shadows. 
This kind of work is lasting; but being very rough, it is 
unpleasant to the sight. It is chiefly used to embellish the 
fronts of palaces, and other magnificent buildings. 
SCRA'TCHER, s. He that scratches. 
SCRATCHES, s. Cracked ulcers or scabs in a horse’s 
foot.—Thou’lt ha’ vapours i’ thy legs again presently ; pray 
thee go in, it may turn to the scratches else. B. Jonson. 
SCRA'TCHINGLY, adv. With the action of scratching. 
—Making him turn close to the ground like a cat, when 
scratchingly she wheels about after a mouse. Sidney. 
SCRAW, s. [Irish and Erse.] Surface or scurf.—Neither 
should that odious custom be allowed of cutting scraws, 
which is flying off the green surface of the ground to cover 
their cabins, or make up their ditches. Swift. 
To SCRAWL, v. a. [Supposed to be corrupted from 
scrabble. ] To draw or mark irregularly or clumsily. 
Peruse my leaves through ev’ry part. 
And think thou see’st its owner’s heart. 
Scrawl'd o’er with trifles thus, and quite 
As hard, as senseless, and as light. Swift. 
To SCRAWL, v. n. To write unskilfully and inelegantly. 
Think not your verses sterling, 
Though with a golden pen you scrawl. 
And scribble in a Berlin. Swift. 
[From crawl.~\ To creep like a reptile. Ainsworth. Un¬ 
used. 
SCRAWL, s. Unskilful and inelegant writing.—Mr. 
Wycherly hearing from me how welcome his letters would 
be, writ to you, in which I inserted my scrawl. Pope. 
SCRA'WLER, s. A clumsy and inelegant writer. 
SCRAWLY, a term provincially signifying thin and 
ravelled as grain. 
SC RAY, s. A bird, otherwise called a sea-swallow, or 
hirundo marina. Ainsworth and Bailey. — Scrays, two 
sorts, which are a kind of gull. Ray. 
SCRAY1NGHAM, a village of England, East Riding of 
Yorkshire; miles north-west of Pocklington. 
SCRE'ABLE, adj. [screabilis, Lat.] That may be spit 
out. Bailey. 
To SCREAK, v. n. [From the Icel. skraeka, and the 
Su. Goth, skrikai] To make a shrill or loud noise.—The 
little babe did loudly scrike and squall. Spenser. 
Women groaning with their load, 
The time of their delivery near, 
Anticipating pain with fear, 
Screeke in their pangs. Sandys. 
SCREAK, s. A screech.—She used many scrikes and 
grievous lamentations. Palmerin and Engl. —Others .peep 
forth into the light, as it were only to see it; and having, by 
a skreek or two, given testimony to the misery of this life, 
presently die and vanish. Bp. Bull. 
