Word.ws English Dictionary

scratching out

scratching out is the present participle and gerund of scratch out.

Meaning of scratch out

Verb

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

  1. To remove something by scratching.
  2. To remove something which was written, by erasing or by putting a mark through it.
  3. To eke out; to obtain with difficulty.
    • to scratch out a meagre living

Questions about scratching out

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

Words near scratching out in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: scratching out (page history and authors); scratch out (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 out.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/scratching_out. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.