(usually plural) a fragment scraped off of something and collected
<noun.object> they collected blood scrapings for analysis
a harsh noise made by scraping
<noun.event> the scrape of violin bows distracted her
a deep bow with the foot drawn backwards (indicating excessive humility)
<noun.communication> all that bowing and scraping did not impress him
Scrape \Scrape\ (skr[=a]p), v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Scraped}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Scraping}.] [Icel. skrapa; akin to Sw. skrapa, Dan. skrabe, D. schrapen, schrabben, G. schrappen, and prob. to E. sharp.] 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. --Ezek. xxvi. 4.
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. --Fuller.
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. --Macaulay.
{To scrape acquaintance}, to seek acquaintance otherwise than by an introduction. --Farquhar.
He tried to scrape acquaintance with her, but failed ignominiously. --G. W. Cable.
Scraping \Scrap"ing\, n. 1. The act of scraping; the act or process of making even, or reducing to the proper form, by means of a scraper.
2. Something scraped off; that which is separated from a substance, or is collected by scraping; as, the scraping of the street.
Scraping \Scrap"ing\, a. Resembling the act of, or the effect produced by, one who, or that which, scrapes; as, a scraping noise; a scraping miser. -- {Scrap"ing*ly}, adv.
"It was a scraping noise, like a tree falling or a snowplow dragging along the road.
Did Lord Rees-Mogg see ITV's excellently acted and produced Firm Friends with Billie Whitelaw and Madhur Jaffrey, which treated all men as something that needed scraping off women's shoes?
Even the little old man scraping a violin while his wife kept time with a stick-shaped tambourine was putting his back into it. Indeed, though architecture is Prague's glory, music is its connecting theme.
Martin says he can ride up or down the building in 20 minutes, swabbing windows and aluminum paneling with a sudsy solution of household detergent and ammonia and scraping them dry with a squeegee.
Ford said it will replace front-brake lining materials, which wear out prematurely, causing a loud, scraping noise when drivers stop.
Braden said the sparks were caused by the landing gear scraping the runway, and there was no fire.
Witnesses reported seeing sparks from the aircraft as it glided along the runway, but Braden said that was because the landing gear was scraping the runway.
His refusal won him a job taking apart old computers, a task that also entailed "scraping out rats and dead birds," Mr. Conrad says.
The company may be scraping the barrel, but with Callas the dregs can still be as good as another singer's champagne.
Residents who have gone weeks without a paycheck are preoccupied with scraping together enough money for rice.
We tried solvents and then found scraping with scalpels and washing with cold water was best." Marx was buried in 1883 and Laurence Bradshaw's sculpture of his head was put up in 1956.
Workers removed plutonium from Enewetak Atoll, another nuclear test site in the Marshall Islands, by scraping the topsoil.
When both attempts failed, the jet circled for nearly an hour and dumped fuel over the ocean before finally making a gentle but ungainly landing, with its nose scraping the pavement.
For example, just scraping the surface of the Earth spreads dust that alters reflectivity, raising temperatures and melting ice.
The weakening prices and profits occur at a time when profit margins are already razor thin, scraping along near 30-year lows.
Fishermen scraping by this season fear they may be at a competitive disadvantage next year because they can't afford better boats and gear.
The big Toronto-based retailer, scraping to make payments on a mountain of borrowed money, has been forced to put its crown jewel, the Bloomingdale's chain, on the block.
Asked why he exported food grown in the country and left his own people scraping by on meager rations, Ceausescu characteristically cited the inflated statistics he loved to use to justify his Stalinist policies.
When our vessel eventually collided with the cargo vessel, there was a realistic scraping of metal, giving the impression that we were badly holed and taking on water fast.
Orion is scraping together cash in several ways.
"By bowing and scraping to the butchers of Beijing, the administration has sent China and the world a message that is not worthy of the world's greatest democracy and one which does not represent the views of the American people," Gejdenson said.
Northeast Texas is scraping by with 45% of normal rainfall, Mr. Flynn adds, and the Rio Grande plains area also is bone-dry.
He has been warning clients that the stock market is overvalued since cash levels began scraping bottom last spring.
The first heat in the Indy 500 is the race for sponsorship money, and even before turning a lap in his No. 16 fluorescent red and white Lola racer, Mr. Bettenhausen had to spend nearly a year scraping together $400,000 to finance his effort.
"D-and-C is not an immediate post-rape procedure," Shesser said, adding that emergency room physicians seldom resort to that procedure, which is a scraping of the uterine lining.
They sit in the dusty, walled-in yard under shades of grass and bamboo, some smiling and chatting, others slowly eating from wooden or plastic bowls, scraping up every remaining bit with their fingers.