scraping
Americannoun
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the act of a person or thing that scrapes.
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the sound of something being scraped.
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Usually scrapings. something that is scraped off, up, or together.
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Digital Technology. the process of extracting data from a digital source for automated replication, formatting, or manipulation by a computer program, as in data mining or website data analysis: web scraping;
screen scraping;
web scraping;
URL scraping.
noun
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the act of scraping
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a sound produced by scraping
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(often plural) something scraped off, together, or up; a small amount
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of scraping
A late Middle English word dating back to 1400–50; see origin at scrape, -ing 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Last week, the government’s own energy statisticians published an explainer on the term, because, at one of America’s most important oil hubs, prices now suggest the tanks may already be scraping bottom.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 21, 2026
A key survey of American consumers is scraping bottom, showing they’ve never felt this lousy about the economy, even at the height of recessions or when the Covid pandemic raged.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
Opencast mining involves scraping rock and earth away at the surface to recover coal - creating an open pit, rather than digging deep underground.
From BBC ● Jun. 9, 2026
Now software stocks are scraping themselves off the floor—but are still behind the curve as big investors stick with what has worked.
From Barron's ● May 22, 2026
More hammering and scraping at the door interrupted the discussion.
From "Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky" by Kwame Mbalia
And that’s why he has sought DNA testing of physical evidence recovered from the scene—fingernail scrapings, bloodstains, and hair—that could show that someone else committed the killing.
From Slate ● Jun. 26, 2025
More problems were found at a factory that Sun had acquired in Detroit, where the diabetes drug metformin was contaminated with metal scrapings.
From Salon ● Jun. 18, 2025
The samples gathered in 1984 included locks of Mary's hair and nail scrapings.
From BBC ● Jan. 16, 2025
But at our earliest opportunity, humans also sought to profit from these substances: scrapings from a Neandertal's teeth show traces of toxins that held medicinal value, including the bases for aspirin and penicillin.
From Scientific American ● Oct. 1, 2023
He taught little Flittman fearsome scrapings and at the end of the year gave him the piece called “Humoresque.”
From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
