Word.ws English Dictionary

scratch someone's back

scratch someone's back verb: to do someone a favour.

Verb

scratch someone's back (third-person singular simple present scratches someone's back, present participle scratching someone's back, simple past and past participle scratched someone's back)

  1. (informal) To do someone a favour.

Forms of scratch someone's back

third-person singular presentscratches someone's back
present participlescratching someone's back
past participlescratched someone's back
pastscratched someone's back

Questions about scratch someone's back

What does scratch someone's back mean?
Scratch someone's back means to do someone a favour.
What part of speech is scratch someone's back?
Scratch someone's back is a verb.
What is the past tense of scratch someone's back?
The past tense of scratch someone's back is scratched someone's back.

Words near scratch someone's back in the dictionary

  1. scratch prints
  2. scratch race
  3. scratch races
  4. scratch sheet
  5. scratch sheets
  6. scratch someone's back
  7. scratch tape
  8. scratch team
  9. scratch teams
  10. scratch that
  11. scratch the itch

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: scratch someone's back (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:

Cite this entry: “scratch someone's back.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/scratch_someone%27s_back. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.