0 past simple and past participle of scratch
1 to cut or damage a surface or your skin slightly with or on something sharp or rough:
We scratched the wall trying to get the bed into Martha's room.
A few chickens were scratching about/around (= searching with their beaks) in the yard for grain.
People have been scratching their names on this rock for years.
I scratched some paint off the door as I was getting out of the car.
Hannah scratched her head thoughtfully.
2 to remove yourself or another person or an animal from a competition before the start:
The car's paintwork has been scratched.
Paintwork on the corner of a stairway tends to get scratched.
I accidentally scratched her with my long nails.
I scraped the car against a post and scratched the paintwork.
We have merely scratched the surface of a range of theoretical approaches that can be explored within the context of priority in health care.
It operates on a field of entangled and confused parchments, on documents that have been scratched over and recopied many times' (p. 151-2).
And here bioethics has only scratched the surface.
