From scratch
WordNet
adverb
(1) From the beginning
"He baked the torte from scratch"
WiktionaryText
Etymology
From the scratch drawn in the ground serving as the starting line of a foot race. A runner “starting from scratch” received no handicap, but started at the beginning of the course.
Adverb
- From the beginning; starting with no advantage or prior preparation; starting from raw ingredients.
- She was out of pancake mix so she had to make the batter from scratch.
- There were so many errors in the program that the programmer decided to rewrite it from scratch.
- When the writer finished writing his book, it was stolen and now he has to rewrite it from scratch.
- He had no money and no rich friends, so he had to build his business from scratch.
Quotations
- 2002, The New Yorker
- He sat there Friday night and built an entire model ship from scratch.
- 1980, Cosmos, Carl Sagan
- If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.