Word.ws English Dictionary

scratching the surface

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

Meaning of scratch the surface

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) To barely begin; to see or do only a fraction of what is possible.
    • This beginners' course only scratches the surface of the subject.

Questions about scratching the surface

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

Words near scratching the surface in the dictionary

  1. scratching one's own itch
  2. scratching out
  3. scratching post
  4. scratching posts
  5. scratching that
  6. scratching the surface
  7. scratching together
  8. scratching up
  9. scratchingly
  10. scratchings
  11. scratchiti

Source and license

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