Word.ws English Dictionary

scratched one's own itch

scratched one's own itch is the simple past and past participle of scratch one's own itch.

Meaning of scratch one's own itch

Verb

scratch one's own itch (third-person singular simple present scratches one's own itch, present participle scratching one's own itch, simple past and past participle scratched one's own itch)

  1. (idiomatic) To do something out of motivation to solve a personal problem; to take matters into one's own hands.
    • Every good work of software starts by scratching a developer's personal itch.1999, Eric S. Raymond, The Cathedral and the Bazaar, section 2
  2. (euphemistic, idiomatic) to masturbate

Questions about scratched one's own itch

What is scratched one's own itch the simple past and past participle of?
Scratched one's own itch is the simple past and past participle of scratch one's own itch.

Words near scratched one's own itch in the dictionary

  1. scratched an itch
  2. scratched below the surface
  3. scratched beneath the surface
  4. scratched by
  5. scratched one's head
  6. scratched one's own itch
  7. scratched out
  8. scratched that
  9. scratched the surface
  10. scratched together
  11. scratched up

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: scratched one's own itch (page history and authors); scratch one's own itch (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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