Scratch \Scratch\, v. i. 1. To use the claws or nails in tearing or in digging; to make scratches.
Dull, tame things, . . . that will neither bite nor scratch. --Dr. H. More.
2. (Billiards) To score, not by skillful play but by some fortunate chance of the game. [Cant, U. S.]
Scratch \Scratch\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Scratched}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Scratching}.] [OE. cracchen (perhaps influenced by OE. scratten to scratch); cf. OHG. chrazz[=o]n, G. kratzen, OD. kratsen, kretsen, D. krassen, Sw. kratsa to scrape, kratta to rake, to scratch, Dan. kradse to scratch, to scrape, Icel. krota to engrave. Cf. {Grate} to rub.] 1. 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.
Small sand-colored stones, so hard as to scratch glass. --Grew.
Be mindful, when invention fails, To scratch your head, and bite your nails. --Swift.
2. To write or draw hastily or awkwardly. ``Scratch out a pamphlet.'' --Swift.
3. 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.
4. To dig or excavate with the claws; as, some animals scratch holes, in which they burrow.
{To scratch a ticket}, to cancel one or more names of candidates on a party ballot; to refuse to vote the party ticket in its entirety. [U. S.]
Scratch \Scratch\, n. 1. 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.
The coarse file . . . makes deep scratches in the work. --Moxon.
These nails with scratches deform my breast. --Prior.
God forbid a shallow scratch should drive The prince of Wales from such a field as this. --Shak.
2. (Pugilistic Matches) 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. [Cant] --Grose.
3. pl. (Far.) 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. --Law (Farmer's Veter. Adviser).
4. A kind of wig covering only a portion of the head.
5. (Billiards) (a) A shot which scores by chance and not as intended by the player; a fluke. [Cant, U. S.] (b) a shot which results in a penalty, such as dropping the cue ball in a pocket without hitting another ball. [1913 Webster +PJC]
6. In various sports, the line from which the start is made, except in the case of contestants receiving a distance handicap. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
{Scratch cradle}. See {Cratch cradle}, under {Cratch}.
{Scratch grass} (Bot.), a climbing knotweed ({Polygonum sagittatum}) with a square stem beset with fine recurved prickles along the angles.
{Scratch wig}. Same as {Scratch}, 4, above. --Thackeray.
{start from scratch} to start (again) from the very beginning; also, to start without resources.
Scratch \Scratch\, 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. [Slang]
{Scratch race}, one without restrictions regarding the entrance of competitors; also, one for which the competitors are chosen by lot.
The judge, however, said he had decided to "turn all of them down and to start from scratch." Bidding in the December auction will begin at $50 million to $60 million, Benton said, adding he expected one or two more bidders to appear.
'There is a golden opportunity to establish brands and strong market franchises from scratch.' But what are the chances of the gamble paying off?
The scratch was discovered on Sunday by a park ranger.
"They had to so something a little different," said auto analyst Kathleen Heaney of Nikko Securities Co. International Inc. "If you wanted to start from scratch, you would go to Spain or Portugal for the labor costs.
At Nissan he was able to start his ideal auto plant from scratch; at TVA he inherits big troubles.
It has urged Oftel to delay the change from 1994 until 1996 and to review the plan from scratch. But the Telecommunications Users' Association, another user group, and BT, Britain's largest telecommunications group, strongly back the original decision.
You have to start from scratch.' A bigger worry perhaps is the east's competitiveness.
He'll throw back a Scotch, scratch his crotch and move across the stage in a cowboy's loping amble. Then he'll hunker down on his haunches to tell a ribald story in a broad Texas drawl.
But in the longer term, more and more are taking the time-consuming, expensive route of training their own nationals from scratch or sending them to basic flying colleges abroad.
"I must admit I do keep her at arms length now, but I get in the pen with her and give her a bit of a scratch," he said.
But, as one Dublin official, admited, 'we have only recently begun to scratch at the surface of the issues'. Three areas were covered: Government in the province.
"It would take many, many years and cost far more for Blue Arrow to try to build a world-wide temporary service from scratch," said Jerry Levine, a Merrill Lynch & Co. analyst who follows temporary-services stocks.
When a foul-breathed demon appears, audience members scratch a section that smells a bit like a cross between rotten eggs and, well, body odor.
Besides, he says, "this isn't the kind of business you could start from scratch."
Despite such failures, though, many faded "designer" brands are trying to recapture their lost luster, believing that it's easier to build on a once-hot name than to start from scratch.
Instead, officials said a dispute with the auctioneer had caused them to cancel the event, and a new auction would have to be planned almost from scratch, with a different bag of properties.
While the IAEA has expertise in inspecting nuclear materials, the U.N. is assembling teams from scratch to deal with other weapons.
Asked recently what the country needed, one replied: "A month of chaos and then start from scratch."
Up to 100 staff of James Capel, the securities house, worked through the weekend to construct a replacement dealing room from scratch.
"If you pick a puppy up by the tail or a kitten by the whiskers, it's going to bite or scratch you.
Throughout the 1980s, companies gobbled up their own shares or took over other concerns because both tactics were cheaper than the cost of replacing corporate assets or starting a business from scratch.
'But, people who have started a business from scratch know that it takes one kind of person to get a ball roll and that is not necessarily the same person who will get it rolling faster.
"Adult males can't be trusted," said Jack Mayer, a wild hog expert in Tampa. "Some days they are very lovable and take chocolate bars and will roll over and let you scratch them on the stomach.
We may believe in the superiority of pluralistic democracy and market forces; but is it sensible to imagine that the Russians can knock up from scratch a politico-economic system which took us hundreds of years?
Since the first cancellation in 1972, the scratch list has grown to 108 _ exactly equal to the number of plants now licensed to operate at full power.
It would take us months to set up an office from scratch, to figure out how we do this.
He said workers many times are trying to repair homes that really should be leveled and rebuilt from scratch. "We're putting so many good hours into jobs and when they're done, they're (homes) not worth 5 cents," he said.
Although his mother was shaken and breathless, Dana came off without a scratch.
Backstage, assistants scratch the soles of the stiff, new shoes with scissors to make them less slippery.
There has been some talk of concessions to the North, but the best thing the International Olympics Committee could do is to scratch such blackmail from consideration.