Verb

1. To draw a sharp or angular object along (something) while exerting pressure.

   Her fingernails scraped across the blackboard, making a shrill sound.

2. To cause something to be in the state implied by the adverb by scraping.

   Scrape the chewing gum off with a knife. (= "remove the chewing gum with a knife by scraping")

3. To injure by scraping.

   She tripped on a rock and scraped her knee.

4. To extract data embedded in a screenshot or formatted medium (such as an HTML web page) by means of an automated program.

Synonyms

• (draw a sharp object along while exerting pressure): grate, scratch
• (cause to be in a certain state by scraping):
• (injure by scraping): abrade, chafe, graze

Noun

1. A broad, shallow injury left by scraping (rather than a cut or a scratch).

   He fell on the sidewalk and got a scrape on his knee.

2. A fight; especially a fist fight without weapons.

   He got in a scrape with the school bully.

3. An awkward set of circumstances.

   I'm in a bit of a scrape — I've no money to buy my wife a birthday present.

4. A D and C or abortion; or, a miscarriage.
   • 1972, in U.S. Senate Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, Abuse of psychiatry for political repression in the Soviet Union. Hearing, Ninety-second Congress, second session, United States Government Printing Office, page 127,

     It’s quite possible, in view of the diagnosis ‘danger of miscarriage’, that they might drag me off, give me a scrape and then say that the miscarriage began itself.

   • 1980, John Cobb, Babyshock: A Mother’s First Five Years, Hutchinson, page 232,

     In expert hands abortion nowadays is almost the same as having a scrape (D & C) and due to improved techniques such as suction termination, and improved lighter anaesthetic, most women feel no worse than having a tooth out.

   • 1985, Beverley Raphael, The Anatomy of Bereavement: a handbook for the caring professions, Routledge, ISBN 0415094542, page 236,

     The loss is significant to the woman and will be stated as such by her. For her it is not “nothing,” “just a scrape,” or “not a life.” It is the beginning of a baby. Years later, she may recall it not just as a miscarriage but also as a baby that was lost.

   • 1999, David Jenkins, Listening to Gynaecological Patients\ Problems, Springer, ISBN 1852331097, page 16,

     17.Have you had a scrape or curettage recently?

5. A shallow depression used by ground birds as a nest; a nest scrape.
   • 1948, in Behaviour: An International Journal of Comparative Ethology, E. J. Brill, page 103,

     We knew from U. Weidmann’s work (1956) that Black-headed Gulls could be prevented from laying by offering them eggs on the empty scrape veil before […]

   • 2000, Charles A. Taylor, The Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia, Kingfisher Publications, ISBN 0753452693, page 85,

     The plover lays its eggs in a scrape on the ground. ¶ […] ¶ Birds’ nests can be little more than a scrape in the ground or a delicate structure of plant material, mud, and saliva.

   • 2006, Les Beletsky, Birds of the World, Johns Hopkins University Press, ISBN 0801884292, page 95,

     Turkey females place their eggs in a shallow scrape in a hidden spot on the ground. Young are born ready to leave the nest and feed themselves (eating insects for their first few weeks).

Synonyms

• (injury): abrasion, graze
• (fight): altercation, brawl, fist fight, fight, fisticuffs, punch-up, scuffle
• (awkward set of circumstances): bind, fix, mess, pickle
• See also Wikisaurus:injury

Quotations

• 2001, Carolyn Cooke, The Bostons, Houghton Mifflin Books, ISBN 0618017682, page 172–173,

  He could hear deer moo in the woods, smell their musk, spot a scrape in a birch tree twenty feet away.

• 2005, Dragan Vujic, Hunting Farm Country Whitetails, iUniverse, ISBN 0595359841, page 58,

  Female whitetails periodically investigate scrapes created by specific bucks. As the doe approaches estrus and becomes receptive to breeding, she will urinate in a scrape as a sharp signal to the buck that she is ready for him.