Word.ws English Dictionary

scratching beneath the surface

scratching beneath the surface is the present participle and gerund of scratch beneath the surface.

Meaning of scratch beneath the surface

Verb

scratch beneath the surface (third-person singular simple present scratches beneath the surface, present participle scratching beneath the surface, simple past and past participle scratched beneath the surface)

  1. (idiomatic) To look or see beyond what is obvious.

Questions about scratching beneath the surface

What is scratching beneath the surface the present participle and gerund of?
Scratching beneath the surface is the present participle and gerund of scratch beneath the surface.

Words near scratching beneath the surface in the dictionary

  1. scratchiness
  2. scratching
  3. scratching a living
  4. scratching an itch
  5. scratching below the surface
  6. scratching beneath the surface
  7. scratching by
  8. scratching one's head
  9. scratching one's own itch
  10. scratching out
  11. scratching post

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: scratching beneath the surface (page history and authors); scratch beneath the surface (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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Cite this entry: “scratching beneath the surface.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/scratching_beneath_the_surface. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.