Word.ws English Dictionary

scratching one's own itch

scratching one's own itch is the present participle and gerund 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 scratching one's own itch

What is scratching one's own itch the present participle and gerund of?
Scratching one's own itch is the present participle and gerund of scratch one's own itch.

Words near scratching one's own itch in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: scratching 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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