scrap

[ skrap ]

/ skræp /

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See synonyms for: scrap / scrapped / scrapping / scraps on Thesaurus.com

noun

a small piece or portion; fragment: a scrap of paper;scraps of cloth.

scraps,

bits or pieces of food, especially of leftover or discarded food.
the remains of animal fat after the oil has been rendered; cracklings.

a detached piece of something written or printed: scraps of poetry.

broken, discarded, or rejected items or parts for use as raw material or in reprocessing, as old metal that can be melted and reworked:The two of them drive around collecting scrap to sell.

chips, cuttings, fragments, or other small pieces of raw material removed, cut away, flaked off, etc., in the process of making or manufacturing an item:Their cutting process is faster, but have you seen the amount of scrap it generates?

adjective

consisting of pieces or fragments.

existing in the form of fragments or remnants of use only for reworking, as metal.

discarded or left over:She was fashioning a toy out of some scrap wood.

verb (used with object), scrapped, scrap·ping.

to break up into pieces for discarding or reworking: to scrap old cars.

to discard as useless, worthless, or ineffective: He urged that we scrap the old method of teaching mathematics.

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Origin of scrap

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English noun scrappe “scrap of food,” from Old Norse skrap, derivative of skrapa “to scrape”

OTHER WORDS FROM scrap

scrap·ping·ly, adverb

Other definitions for scrap (2 of 2)

scrap²

[ skrap ]

/ skræp /

Informal.

noun

a fight or quarrel: She got into a scrap with her in-laws.

verb (used without object), scrapped, scrap·ping.

to engage in a fight or quarrel.

Origin of scrap

First recorded in 1670–80; variant of scrape

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use scrap in a sentence

Perhaps in the future, we’ll not haul out not only bottles, cans, and food scraps to the curbside, but also a bucket of a concentrated pee.
Your pee could be the golden ticket to a greener world|Ula Chrobak|November 19, 2020|Popular-Science
No one in commercial aviation scraps a bad airplane and just starts over.
The Boeing 737 Max faces an even tougher hurdle now: passenger fear|kdunn6|November 19, 2020|Fortune
Among other changes, the IRS barred companies from hiding their free products from search engines and scrapped a years-old prohibition on the IRS creating its own online filing system.
Two ProPublica Projects Win Loeb Awards|by ProPublica|November 13, 2020|ProPublica
To start, students must conduct an “environmental scan” by holding up everything they might use for their test, including their calculator and any scrap paper, in front of the webcam for three seconds each.
Cheating-detection companies made millions during the pandemic. Now students are fighting back.|Drew Harwell|November 12, 2020|Washington Post

Holcomb scrapped to the edge, leaving nobody to fill the A gap.
Washington football notes: Run-stop struggles, and the future at quarterback|Sam Fortier|November 10, 2020|Washington Post

British Dictionary definitions for scrap (1 of 2)

scrap¹

/ (skræp) /

noun

a small piece of something larger; fragment

an extract from something written

waste material or used articles, esp metal, often collected and reprocessed
(as modifier)scrap iron

(plural) pieces of discarded food

verb scraps, scrapping or scrapped (tr)

to make into scrap

to discard as useless

Word Origin for scrap

C14: from Old Norse skrap; see scrape

British Dictionary definitions for scrap (2 of 2)

scrap²

/ (skræp) informal /

noun

a fight or argument

verb scraps, scrapping or scrapped

(intr) to quarrel or fight

Word Origin for scrap

C17: perhaps from scrape

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

scrap

Origin of scrap

OTHER WORDS FROM scrap

Other definitions for scrap (2 of 2)

Origin of scrap

Words related to scrap

How to use scrap in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for scrap (1 of 2)

Word Origin for scrap

British Dictionary definitions for scrap (2 of 2)

Word Origin for scrap