Word.ws English Dictionary

scotch

/skɒt͡ʃ//skɑt͡ʃ/

scotch noun: a surface cut or abrasion. Also the alternative form of Scotch.

Noun (1)

scotch (plural scotches)

  1. A surface cut or abrasion.
  2. A line drawn on the ground, as one used in playing hopscotch.
  3. A block for a wheel or other round object; a chock, wedge, prop, or other support, to prevent slipping.
    • a scotch for a wheel or a log on inclined ground
    • He was like the scotch in the smooth, happy machinery of the home. And he was always aware of this fall of silence on his entry, the shutting off of life, the unwelcome.1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter 4, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC

Verb (1)

scotch (third-person singular simple present scotches, present participle scotching, simple past and past participle scotched)

  1. (transitive) To cut or score; to wound superficially.
    • We have scotched the snake, not killed it.c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
  2. (transitive) To prevent (something) from being successful.
    • The rain scotched his plans of going to the beach.
  3. (transitive) To debunk or discredit an idea or rumor.
    • The prime minister scotched rumors of his resignation.
    • Other declassified files from the 1960s show that the Northern Ireland government discussed a proposed tunnel to Scotland. Several district councils and a US firm, Technical Studies Inc, championed the idea, but Stormont officials scotched it as impractical and too expensive.2023 August 23, Rory Carroll, “Files reveal terms ministers were warned not to use in Northern Ireland”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
    Synonyms:
    spike
  4. (transitive) To block a wheel or other round object.
    • The workers stopped the rig on an incline and scotched the wheels.
    • The pantechnicon was running away. It had perceived the wrath to come and was fleeing. Its guardians had evidently left it imperfectly scotched or braked, and it had got loose.1911, Arnold Bennett, The Card: A Story of Adventure in the Five Towns, London: Methuen Publishing, OCLC 492063506; republished Toronto, Ont.: William Briggs, 1910s, OCLC 225424669, page 69
    Synonyms:
    chock, block
  5. (transitive) To dress (stone) with a pick or pointed instrument.
  6. (transitive, textile manufacturing) To beat yarn in order to break up slugs and align the threads.
    • Yarn is scotched immediately after it has been dried and while it is still warm. http://www.google.com/patents?id=DXdGAAAAEBAJ&pg=PP3&vq=scotched&dq=scotching
  7. (obsolete, transitive) To clothe or cover up.

Verb (2)

scotch (third-person singular simple present scotches, present participle scotching, simple past and past participle scotched)

  1. (Australian, slang, transitive) To rape.

Proper noun capitalized: Scotch

Scotch

  1. (dated) The Scots language.
    • But Rob was just saying what a shame it was that folk should be shamed nowadays to speak Scotch – or they called it Scots if they did, the split-tongued sourocks!1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 156
  2. (dated) The Scottish dialect of English.
    Synonyms:
    Scots, Scottish
  3. (dated) The people of Scotland.
    • The Scotch are a hardy bunch.
    Synonyms:
    Scots, Scottish
  4. (informal) The opening 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4.
    • Karpov played the Scotch against Anand.
    Synonyms:
    the Scotch Game

Noun (2) capitalized: Scotch

Scotch (countable and uncountable, plural Scotches)

  1. (uncountable) Whisky distilled in Scotland, especially from malted barley.
    • Paul has drunk a lot of Scotch.
  2. (countable) Any variety of Scotch.
    • My favorite Scotches are Glenlivet and Laphroaig.
  3. (countable) A glass of Scotch.
    • Gimme a Scotch.

Adjective capitalized: Scotch

Scotch (not comparable)

  1. (dated) Of or from Scotland; Scottish.
    • Behind all his assumed unsocialism there lay a true warm heart; nor could anything be kindlier than the welcome which, whenever they did come to him, any of his Scotch relatives received.1801, William Hanna, Memoirs of the life and writings of Thomas Chalmers, page 422
    • our landlord informed us, with a sort of apologetic tone, that there was a Scotch gentleman to dine with us.1817, Walter Scott, Rob Roy
    Synonyms:
    Scottish, Scots

Also used as

scotch is also the alternative form of Scotch.

scotch is also the clipping of Scotch tape.

scotch meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

scotch in Hindi

स्कॉच

scotch in Tamil

ஸ்காட்ச், ஸ்காட்ச் செய்ய, ஸ்காட் செய்ய

scotch in Marathi

स्कॉच, स्कॉच करण्यासाठी

scotch in Urdu

اسکاچ, سکاٹچ, سکوچ
More languagesFewer languages
scotch in Bengali
স্কচ, স্কোচ, স্কচ করতে
scotch in Telugu
స్కాచ్
scotch in Malayalam
സ്കോച്ച്, സ്കാച്ച്, സ്കാച്ച് ചെയ്യാൻ
scotch in Kannada
ಸ್ಕಾಚ್
scotch in Punjabi
ਸਕੌਚ, ਸਕਾਚ
scotch in Gujarati
સ્કોચ, સ્કોટચ, સ્કોટ કરવા માટે
scotch in Odia
ସ୍କଚ୍, ସ୍କୋଚ୍, ସ୍କଚ
scotch in Nepali
स्कच गर्न, स्कच गर्नका लागि

Examples of scotch in a sentence

  • "Scotch and soda" is a mixture of Scotch whisky and soda water.
  • Care to join me in a belt of scotch?
  • Scotch will make you a man.

All 22 example sentences with scotch

Synonyms of scotch

22 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of scotch

Forms of scotch

Noun
pluralscotches
pluralScotches
Verb
third-person singular presentscotches
present participlescotching
past participlescotched
pastscotched
Adjective
comparativemore scotch
superlativemost scotch

Plural of scotch: scotches

Origin of scotch

From Middle English scocchen (“to cut”), perhaps from Anglo-Norman escocher (“to notch”), from es- (“intensive prefix”) (from Latin ex-) + Old French coche (“notch”). Not related to Scotch.

From 3M's Scotch tape; the Australian rhyming slang comes from the rhyme between tape and rape.

From Middle English *Scoche (attested in Scocheman, whence Scotchman), a contraction of Scottisch, whence Scottish. The chess opening is supposedly named after a correspondence game between Edinburgh, Scotland, and London, England. Doublet of Scottish, Scots, and schottische.

Words formed from scotch

Phrases with scotch

41 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with scotch

Questions about scotch

What does scotch mean?
Scotch means a surface cut or abrasion.
What is scotch in Hindi?
Scotch in Hindi is स्कॉच. See Scotch meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is scotch?
Scotch can be a noun, a verb, a proper noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce scotch?
Scotch is pronounced /skɒt͡ʃ/ (UK).
What is the plural of scotch?
The plural of scotch is scotches.

Words near scotch in the dictionary

  1. scot-free
  2. Scot.
  3. scotale
  4. scotales
  5. Scotby
  6. scotch
  7. Scotch acre
  8. Scotch acres
  9. Scotch argus
  10. Scotch arguses
  11. Scotch attorney

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: scotch (page history and authors); Scotch (page history and authors); scotch (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); scotch (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); scotch (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); scotch (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); scotch (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); scotch (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); scotch (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); scotch (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); scotch (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); scotch (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); scotch (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); scotch (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-scotch.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Scotch.wav.

Cite this entry: “scotch.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/scotch. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.