Word.ws English Dictionary

scrape at the bottom of the barrel

scrape at the bottom of the barrel is the alternative form of scrape the bottom of the barrel.

Meaning of scrape the bottom of the barrel

Verb

scrape the bottom of the barrel (third-person singular simple present scrapes the bottom of the barrel, present participle scraping the bottom of the barrel, simple past and past participle scraped the bottom of the barrel)

  1. (idiomatic, informal) To settle for a poor option due to a lack or unavailability of anything more favorable.
    • They must really have been scraping the bottom of the barrel if they couldn't find a better design than that.

Forms of scrape at the bottom of the barrel

third-person singular presentscrapes at the bottom of the barrel
present participlescraping at the bottom of the barrel
past participlescraped at the bottom of the barrel
pastscraped at the bottom of the barrel

Questions about scrape at the bottom of the barrel

What is scrape at the bottom of the barrel the alternative form of?
Scrape at the bottom of the barrel is the alternative form of scrape the bottom of the barrel.

Words near scrape at the bottom of the barrel in the dictionary

  1. scrapboxes
  2. scrape
  3. scrape acquaintance
  4. scrape along
  5. scrape and bow
  6. scrape at the bottom of the barrel
  7. scrape by
  8. scrape down
  9. scrape off
  10. scrape someone off the ceiling
  11. scrape the barrel

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: scrape at the bottom of the barrel (page history and authors); scrape the bottom of the barrel (page history and authors). 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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