Word.ws English Dictionary

scraping the bottom of the barrel

scraping the bottom of the barrel is the present participle and gerund 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.

Questions about scraping the bottom of the barrel

What is scraping the bottom of the barrel the present participle and gerund of?
Scraping the bottom of the barrel is the present participle and gerund of scrape the bottom of the barrel.

Words near scraping the bottom of the barrel in the dictionary

  1. scraping by
  2. scraping down
  3. scraping off
  4. scraping someone off the ceiling
  5. scraping the barrel
  6. scraping the bottom of the barrel
  7. scraping through
  8. scraping together
  9. scraping up
  10. scrapingly
  11. scrapings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: scraping 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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