hen-scratchedadj.

Brit.

/ˈhɛnskratʃt/, U.S.

/ˈhɛnˌskrætʃt/, Australian English

/ˈhenskrætʃt/

Origin: Formed within English, by compounding. Etymons: hen n.¹, scratched adj.

Etymology: < hen n.¹ + scratched adj. In sense 1 probably after hen-scratching n. 1; compare hen-scratch v. In sense 3 after hen scratch n. (compare earlier hen-scratching n. 2).

1. Chiefly North American and Australian slang. Of land: dug in a cursory manner and to insufficient depth, esp. in ploughing, mining, or prospecting for minerals. Cf. hen-scratch v. Now rare.

ΚΠ

1870 Evening Bull. (San Francisco) 13 May With abundant rains they make a crop, but let a short interval of dry weather ensue, and their ‘hen scratched’ fields sown [sic] dry up.

1873 Maitland (New S. Wales) Mercury 3 Apr. Mr. Martin Gibbons, manager for a Sydney company, has been for some time past employing a number of miners in further testing the partially worked—or, rather, hen scratched—reefs in this locality.

1939 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 21 Aug. 19/2 Australia is a prominent offender here, forgetting that more useful work in pioneering is still before the nation—a hen-scratched continent.

2. Scratched by or as if by hens; shabby, scruffy.

ΚΠ

1906 Harper's Mag. Dec. 903/2 Wasn't the lean, shrubless, hen-scratched yard there at our backs in its old immutable ugliness?

1921 D. H. Lawrence Sea & Sardinia 267 It was a small, stony, hen-scratched place of poor people.

1958 K. Sully Burden of Seed xi. 123 Although the farmhouse was large, it was a hovel, a hovel rambling..into a hen-scratched garden at the front, and flanked by cowsheds and pigsties.

2017 S. Armitage Unaccompanied 21 The king in his kingdom of hen-scratched earth, a soft flurry of Rhode Island Reds around his work-boots.

3. U.S. colloquial. Written in cramped, untidy, or illegible handwriting; covered with writing of this kind. Cf. hen scratch n. 3.

ΘΚΠ

society > communication > writing > handwriting or style of > [adjective] > bad > illegible or untidy > covered with

scribbled1550

scribble-scrabble1703

overscrawled1879

bescrawled1880

hen-scratched1915

1915 Proc. 34th Ann. Meeting Indiana Pharmaceut. Assoc. 64 Typewritten labels are well received by the public, a long step in advance of the henscratched directions we generally see.

1959 Aransas Pass (Texas) Progress 19 Mar. 4/6 Something the machines won't do: read Uncle Bill's hen-scratched addresses on his all-but-illegible letters.

2006 L. Lawlor He will go Fearless v. 75 This time the jerky, hen-scratched writing on the back of the photograph was difficult to read.

This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2019; most recently modified version published online March 2022).

单词	hen-scratched
释义	hen-scratchedadj. Brit. /ˈhɛnskratʃt/, U.S. /ˈhɛnˌskrætʃt/, Australian English /ˈhenskrætʃt/ Origin: Formed within English, by compounding. Etymons: hen n.¹, scratched adj. Etymology: < hen n.¹ + scratched adj. In sense 1 probably after hen-scratching n. 1; compare hen-scratch v. In sense 3 after hen scratch n. (compare earlier hen-scratching n. 2). 1. Chiefly North American and Australian slang. Of land: dug in a cursory manner and to insufficient depth, esp. in ploughing, mining, or prospecting for minerals. Cf. hen-scratch v. Now rare. ΚΠ 1870 Evening Bull. (San Francisco) 13 May With abundant rains they make a crop, but let a short interval of dry weather ensue, and their ‘hen scratched’ fields sown [sic] dry up. 1873 Maitland (New S. Wales) Mercury 3 Apr. Mr. Martin Gibbons, manager for a Sydney company, has been for some time past employing a number of miners in further testing the partially worked—or, rather, hen scratched—reefs in this locality. 1939 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 21 Aug. 19/2 Australia is a prominent offender here, forgetting that more useful work in pioneering is still before the nation—a hen-scratched continent. 2. Scratched by or as if by hens; shabby, scruffy. ΚΠ 1906 Harper's Mag. Dec. 903/2 Wasn't the lean, shrubless, hen-scratched yard there at our backs in its old immutable ugliness? 1921 D. H. Lawrence Sea & Sardinia 267 It was a small, stony, hen-scratched place of poor people. 1958 K. Sully Burden of Seed xi. 123 Although the farmhouse was large, it was a hovel, a hovel rambling..into a hen-scratched garden at the front, and flanked by cowsheds and pigsties. 2017 S. Armitage Unaccompanied 21 The king in his kingdom of hen-scratched earth, a soft flurry of Rhode Island Reds around his work-boots. 3. U.S. colloquial. Written in cramped, untidy, or illegible handwriting; covered with writing of this kind. Cf. hen scratch n. 3. ΘΚΠ society > communication > writing > handwriting or style of > [adjective] > bad > illegible or untidy > covered with scribbled1550 scribble-scrabble1703 overscrawled1879 bescrawled1880 hen-scratched1915 1915 Proc. 34th Ann. Meeting Indiana Pharmaceut. Assoc. 64 Typewritten labels are well received by the public, a long step in advance of the henscratched directions we generally see. 1959 Aransas Pass (Texas) Progress 19 Mar. 4/6 Something the machines won't do: read Uncle Bill's hen-scratched addresses on his all-but-illegible letters. 2006 L. Lawlor He will go Fearless v. 75 This time the jerky, hen-scratched writing on the back of the photograph was difficult to read. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2019; most recently modified version published online March 2022). < adj.1870
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