scratch
verb (used with object)
to break, mar, or mark the surface of by rubbing, scraping, or tearing with something sharp or rough.
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.
After only 19 runs in three innings in the series, there was pressure on Smith, and he started scratchily and survived an lbw review when playing no shot to Mohammed Siraj.
From BBC ● Dec. 15, 2024
By the time she was nine, she had read “Middlemarch” and most of Dickens; she learned the violin and played it scratchily but at a tremendous pace, advancing through all the grades.
From The New Yorker ● Sep. 10, 2018
Here he started scratchily, but by the end seemed to have become weirdly ubiquitous, a gristly substance spread across the whole of that Leicester backline.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 14, 2017
The kid on the bus seat next to me was scratchily drawing on his binder with one of those new Bic pens made of clear plastic.
From Forbes ● Jul. 13, 2015
One dined scratchily off luke-warm silver, one's breakfast cup was Crown Derby set in filigree.
From The Oyster by Peer
