Word.ws English Dictionary

scratchier

scratchier is the comparative form of scratchy.

Meaning of scratchy

Adjective

scratchy (comparative scratchier, superlative scratchiest)

  1. Characterized by scratches.
    • An indulgent playmate, Grannie would lay aside the long scratchy-looking letter she was writing (heavily crossed ‘to save notepaper’) and enter into the delightful pastime of ‘a chicken from Mr Whiteley's’.1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in An Autobiography, part I, London: Collins, →ISBN
  2. Irritating; itchy.
  3. (informal) Noisy, lossy; marred by white noise or static as a result of poor or low signal, interference or unfavourable atmospheric conditions.
    • The FM station two hundred miles away was receivable, but the audio was too scratchy to positively identify.
  4. Having popping and/or crackling sounds due to excessive wear, especially from scratch marks.
    • Once he almost fell asleep, and then the little record player started up in his mother and father's bedroom. Mom was playing her scratchy Elvis 45s again.1991, Stephen King, Needful Things
  5. (informal) Irritable; tetchy.
    • 'Now, now, don't get scratchy,' said Casali. 'You've got enough troubles of your own. […]1978, Attilio Veraldi, The Payoff, page 105

Questions about scratchier

What is scratchier the comparative form of?
Scratchier is the comparative form of scratchy.

Words near scratchier in the dictionary

  1. scratches up
  2. scratchest
  3. scratcheth
  4. scratchgrass
  5. scratchie
  6. scratchier
  7. scratchies
  8. scratchiest
  9. scratchily
  10. scratchin'
  11. scratchiness

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: scratchier (page history and authors); scratchy (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: “scratchier.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/scratchier. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.