scrat
/skɹæt/
scrat verb: to scratch or scrape.
Verb
scrat (third-person singular simple present scrats, present participle scratting, simple past and past participle scratted)
- To scratch or scrape.
- Euclio […] as he went from home, seeing a crow scrat upon the muck-hill, returned in all haste, taking it for malum omen, an ill sign […]., New York Review of Books, 2001, p.286
- To rake; to search.
- He himself had scratted in the thin dust of evangelical tracts.1978, A.S. Byatt, The Virgin in The Garden, Vintage International, published 1992, page 89
Noun (1)
scrat (plural scrats)
- A hermaphrodite.
- three on the right side for males , three on the left side for femals , and one in the midst for Hermophrodices or Scrats1649, Thomas Johnson, The Workes of that Famous Chirurgion Ambrose Parey
Noun (2)
scrat (plural scrats)
- A devil.
Forms of scrat
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | scrats |
| present participle | scratting |
| past participle | scratted |
| past | scratted |
| Noun | |
| plural | scrats |
Origin of scrat
From Middle English scratten. Further etymology uncertain; apparently related to cratch, from Middle English cratchen, cracchen (“to scratch”), alteration of *cratsen (“to scratch”). The root is Germanic and may be inherited from Proto-West Germanic. Ultimately from Proto-Germanic *krattōną (“to scratch”), from Proto-Indo-European *gred-, *grod- (“to scratch, scrape”); ultimately onomatopoeic in origin (compare crush, crow). From a surface analysis, maybe related to Proto-Germanic *skraudō (“scraps, shreds”); also Old English scrama (“scratch”), among other Germanic roots beginning with *skr- (cf. scrape). Compare related Old Swedish kratta (“to scratch”), Swedish kratta (“to rake”), Danish kratte (“to scratch”), Icelandic krota (“to engrave”); Old Norse *kratsa, Danish kradse (“to scratch, scrape, claw”), Swedish kratsa (“to scratch”), Icelandic krassa (“to scrawl”); Dutch kratsen (“to scratch”), Low German kratten, Old High German krazzōn, crazōn (“to scratch”), Middle Low German krassen, kratsen, German kratzen (“to scratch”), Albanian gërresë (“rasp, scraper”). According to SAOB, a related word is apparently Old Swedish kraza (“to quarrel, to fight”), which could suggest a...
Compare Old English scritta (“a hermaphrodite”), which had an earlier sense of "effeminate person, castrated man," presumably related to sċieran (“to cut”). Liberman notes that Germanic glossators, not familiar with Ovid, did not know exactly how to translate Latin hermaphroditus and instead matched it with more native words related to sexual deficiencies.
From Middle English scrat, from Old English *scrætt, from Proto-Germanic *skrattuz (“troll, forest monster”). Compare German Schratt and Old Norse skratti.
Words that rhyme with scrat
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- mat
- slat
- blat
- matt
- matte
- nat
- pat
- sat
- scat
- sprat
- vat
- old hat
- phat
- plat
- prat
- rabat
- spat
- tat
- @
- acrobat
- anticat
- antifat
- antirat
- batt
- big cat
- Cheshire cat
- clat
- combat
- gat
- glatt
- gnat
- manat
- Montserrat
- plait
- skat
- stat
- the fact that
- twat
- whereat
- begat
- Bratt
- BTO flat
- chowkat
- dassie rat
- dat
- despotat
- drat
- Flatt
Questions about scrat
- What does scrat mean?
- Scrat means to scratch or scrape.
- What part of speech is scrat?
- Scrat can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce scrat?
- Scrat is pronounced /skɹæt/.
- What is the past tense of scrat?
- The past tense of scrat is scratted.
Words near scrat in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: scrat (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-scrat.wav.
Cite this entry: “scrat.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/scrat. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.