1896 Rudder July 220/2 A table of time allowances has been figured out..using the 130-foot boat as ‘scratch boat’ (to use a foot-racing term).

1950 Sun (Baltimore) 18 Mar. 12/1 The Ticonderoga..was named the scratch boat. This means she is favored to finish first in the long race.

1908 Westm. Gaz. 21 Apr. 4/2 Two thousand two hundred and thirty-one yards separated the limit car from the scratch car.

1897 Earl of Suffolk et al. Encycl. Sport I. 62/1 (Athletics) Scratch line, the mark from which the length of any race is measured.

1955 Times 22 Aug. 4/5 The race..resolved itself in the closing stages into an exciting tussle between Mr. Clifford, in the scratch machine, and Mr. Peter Vanneck, in the longest handicap aircraft.

1877 Bicycle Jrnl. 7 Sept. 6/1 The ultimate result was a brilliant and well earned victory by the two scratch men.

1888 Athenæum 16 June 760/3 The tone of brutality towards bad players which scratch players always adopt.

1897 Earl of Suffolk et al. Encycl. Sport I. 473/1 (Golf) Scratch player, a good player, who receives neither handicap nor penalty.

1860 J. C. Hotten Dict. Slang (ed. 2) 208 Scratch-race (on the Turf), a race where any horse, aged, winner, or loser, can run with any weights.

1888 P. Furnivall Physical Training 6 Next comes the knotty point as to whether the rider intends training for handicaps or scratch races.

1976 Star (Sheffield) 30 Nov. Bert Oliver (Kelty), British professional 110 metres champion, is the scratch runner in the Skol Sprint 110 metres handicap on January 1 and January 3.

1931 B. Brown Talking Pictures vii. 175 Horns of the exponential type give a more or less thin ‘scratch belt’ as it is called. With normal type of horn setting..scratch is likely to be noticed most at the back of the stalls. This may often be remedied by raising the horns a little, and thus throwing the scratch belt above the heads of the stalls yet below the balcony.

1897 C. M. Flandrau Harvard Episodes 192 His note-books and scratch block were lying open.

1880 ‘Ouida’ Moths I. 39 She was the most obstinate, humdrum, nasty old scratch-cat in the County.

1891 Cent. Dict. Scratch-coat.

1953 Van den Branden & Knowles Plastering i. 5 Of the three coats, the first coat, or scratch coat, is a thin coat... The purpose of the scratch coat..is to..provide a good base for the plaster coats that will follow.

1823 J. F. Cooper Pioneers I. xi. 146 The brown sides of the scratch-coated walls.

1911 Encycl. Brit. XXI. 785/2 For the first coat a layer of well-haired coarse stuff..is put on with the laying trowel. This is termed ‘pricking up’ in London, and in America ‘scratch coating’.

1888 C. T. Jacobi Printers' Vocab. 120 Scratch comma, a sign thus / used in old documents and reprints. It is now used as a shilling mark.

1892 T. R. Lounsbury Stud. Chaucer I. 342 The mark that goes under the name of a scratch-comma.

1822 R. Nares Gloss. at Cratch A childish game, corruptly called scratch-cradle.

1914 Proc. Somerset Archæol. Soc. 59 ii. 26 The name Scratch Dial has been given to this ancient form of sundial.

1927 Notes & Queries 26 Nov. 393/2 Scratch dials.—Examples will be found outside the tower of either Redbourn or Flamstead Church, and East Shefford. It has been suggested that they are masons' setting-out marks, as they are not in suitable positions for sundials.

1938 Times Lit. Suppl. 15 Jan. 39/1 The woodwork follows—roofs, benches, pulpits; and then scratch-dials and aumbries, mural paintings and windows bring up the rear.

1960 J. Betjeman Summoned by Bells v. 49 Was that the reason why the pale grey slides Of tympana, scratch dials and Norfolk screens So pleased me at his lectures?

1967 C. A. Vearncombe Hist. of Church of St. Lawrence the Martyr (Lydeard St. Lawrence, Somerset) 19 This doorway has a scratch dial on the east, 3 ft. 9 in. above the plinth.

1888 C. T. Jacobi Printers' Vocab. 120 Scratch figures, a figure cast with a line through it..to indicate a cancel, etc.

1929 K. Henney Princ. Radio xvi. 289 Similar filters are used in phonograph reproduction to eliminate the needle noise. They are called scratch filters and may tune somewhere between 3000 and 5000 cycles.

1930 Sel. Gloss. Motion Picture Techncian (Acad. Motion Pictures, Hollywood) Scratch filter, a choke coil and condenser used to filter out very high frequency sounds or ground noises—usually the needle scratch in wax reproduction.

1931 B. Brown Talking Pictures 128 Usually, scratch filters are placed across the two pick-ups.

1935 A. R. Nilson & J. L. Hornung Pract. Radio Communication viii. 349 It will be necessary to attenuate the high frequencies... This may be accomplished by introducing a series-resonant circuit similar to that used for scratch filters.

1977 Rolling Stone 5 May 80/2 Watch for this spec when you consider the usefulness of rumble and scratch filters on your next amp or receiver.

1891 Cent. Dict. Scratch-finish, a finish for decorative objects of metal-work, in which a surface otherwise smooth is diversified by small curved scratches forming irregular scrolls over the whole field.

1846–50 A. Wood Class-bk. Bot. 475 Polygonum sagittatum. Scratchgrass.

1886 J. Britten & R. Holland Dict. Eng. Plant-names Scratch Grass.

1928 Jrnl. Iron & Steel Inst. 117 893 Annealing these cold-rolled single crystals at 250°C..gave no measurable rise of scratch hardness.

1962 R. Webster Gems II. 488 For the gemmologist, scratch hardness, based on the standard minerals in Mohs's list, is the only practical basis for experiment.

1972 Jrnl. Physics D 5 1293 Scratch hardness measurements reflect a greater degree of anisotropy in the properties of crystals than the corresponding indentation techniques.

1917 C. Mathewson Second Base Sloan 166 Four men faced Chase in the third, the first getting a scratch hit.

1935 Encycl. Sports, Games & Pastimes 63/1 Scratch-hit, a weak hit into the infield.

1943 Amer. Speech 18 103 A ‘single’ in the third inning becomes a ‘scratch hit’ in the fourth.

1976 Webster's Sport Dict. 374/1 Scratch hit, a batted ball that enables a batter to reach base safely but that is neither an error nor a clean base hit.

1733 J. Tull Horse-hoing Husbandry vii. 26 The Shallow Horse-Hoing..is but an Imitation of the Hand-Hoe,..and may be properly called Scratch-Hoing.

1923 R. Kipling Irish Guards in Great War I. 6 The German trenches, which were rather in the nature of scratch-holes.

1969 G. Coppard With Machine Gun to Cambrai xxi. 87 We lived a mean and improverished sort of existence in lousy scratch holes.

1905 P. N. Hasluck Electro-plating Fig. 44 Scratch-knot.

1899 B. Tarkington Gentleman from Indiana xiii. 223 Sheets of blank scratch-paper lay before them, and they relaxed not their knit brows.

1934 J. O'Hara Appointment in Samarra (1935) vii. 214 He wanted to work.., and he tried to the extent of getting out some scratch-paper and pencils.

1971 Islander (Victoria, Brit. Columbia) 12 Sept. 9/5 When I take down a recipe from someone it is usually on a piece of scratch paper.

1979 Farmington (New Mexico) Daily Times 27 May 6c/4 (advt.) Newsprint roll end paper 20c. a pound.., or else we will cut scratch paper, any length & width desired for 35c a pound.

1771 T. Smollett Humphry Clinker I. 197 Our new footman..lost his scratch periwig.

1926 D. H. Lawrence Plumed Serpent x. 170 The land was being scratch-ploughed by a pair of oxen and a lump of pointed wood.

1870 G. C. T. Bartley One Square Mile East-end London 50 The abolition of Greenwich and other fairs having much damaged the sale of the scratch-rattle toy, which was his speciality.

1939 Sun (Baltimore) 30 Nov. 24/6 I noticed that one of the girls was looking at a scratch sheet.

1956 ‘T. Betts’ Across Board 170 William Armstrong..published the first scratch sheet that ever appeared on the newsstands of New York. The year was 1917.

1963 L. Hairston in Freedomways Winter 52 I..took the resumé scratch-sheet..background..workin' experience.. and such particulars.

1973 N.Y. Law Jrnl. 8 May 4/4 The person who reads the New York Times or Daily News or even the scratch sheets.

1934 P. A. Wells Design in Woodwork iii. 28 Lines or bandings round a panel,..can be pleasant..if not overdone. These are grooved in with a scratch stock, a simple tool made in the workshop.

1966 A. W. Lewis Gloss. Woodworking Terms 85 Scratch stock, tool for making small beads, mouldings, or grooves of inlays by scraping along the grain of the wood.

1976 F. E. Sherlock Enjoying Home Carpentry & Woodwork vii. 76 The scratch stock is very useful for the fine woodworker who wishes to inlay veneer lines.

1855 A. Pratt Flowering Plants & Ferns Great Brit. III. 154 (Goose-grass or Cleavers)... Leaves, stems, and globular fruits are all bristly, and the latter often cling to the clothing,..thus it is called..Scratchweed.

1868 Paxton's Bot. Dict. Scratch-weed.

1775 F. Burney Jrnl. 26 Mar. in Early Jrnls. & Lett. (1990) II. 95 [Garrick] was himself in a most odious scratch Wig.

1889 F. E. Gretton Memory's Harkback 7 A good-humoured, easy-going veteran in a scratch wig.

1710 J. Harris Lexicon Technicum II Scratch-work, in Italian, Sgrafitti, was a way of Painting in Fresco, by preparing of a black Ground, on which was placed a white Plaster; and this White being taken off with an Iron Bodkin, the Black appears thro the Holes, and serves for Shadows.

1910 W. de la Mare Three Mulla-mulgars i. 6 She is shown veiled on the rude pots of Assasimmon and in Mulgar scratch-work.

1977 Times Lit. Suppl. 14 Jan. 40/2 Reworked by Blake with scratchwork and blank ink... In this intermediate proof Blake has made these alterations through scratchwork and pen lines, in preparation for reworking the plate.

1897 Country Life Illustr. 23 Jan. 82/2 Mr Glover, playing from scratch, was round in 86.

1905 H. Vardon Compl. Golfer xxii. 251 A player whose handicap was several strokes removed from scratch.

1941 R. R. Marett Jerseyman at Oxf. ix. 138 I was never really worth more than bare ‘scratch’, and clean outside the ‘tiger’ class.

1955 R. Browning Hist. Golf 126 Some outstanding player was rated at scratch, and others handicapped from him.

1982 S. B. Flexner Listening to Amer. 265 Each hole was assigned a score, ground score, or scratch, all meaning the number of strokes a moderately good player would be expected to take and which each player tried to equal or better.

1988 Today's Golfer July 144/3 By limiting overseas entrants to those with handicaps of scratch or better?

1982 Melody Maker 4 Dec. 12/3 The New York Scratch 'n' Rap Revue.

1987 New Musical Express 14 Feb. 27/4 The 12″ dance record is an inevitable liaison with the hi-technology of synthesisers and the rough treatment of rap and scratch.

1985 Honey June 18/2 Scratch is a playful reaction to the endless offerings and noise of ‘the media’. It interrupts the normal passive flow of TV, bends it a bit.

1985 M. Wilcox et al. Subverting Television (pamphlet) 3/1 Just playing with the TV remote-control console, quickly switching stations at random, is a basic scratch.

1985 Listener 12 Dec. 20/2 Scratch is completely on the outskirts.

1986 Photographer May 26/1 A simple scratch can be built up by recording the chosen music/sound onto the audio channel of the video recorder then switch[ing] between channels as the vision is being recorded.

1982 N.Y. Rocker Jan. 27/2 He created terms for the various sound effects he could achieve: violin phase, punch phase, fake phase, scratch phase.

1983 N.Y. Times 25 Dec. i. 47/1 On Tuesday, Mr. Hancock and a band that included the ‘scratch’ disk jockey Grand Mixer D. Street appeared at the Ritz.

1983 WWD 17 June 4/2 At the clubs for younger people, like the 321.., where KROQ DJs play frenetic pop and scratch music.

1984 N.Y. Times 15 July vi. 45/1 Brahms wrote just what he wanted. He didn't have to think, ‘Will a scratch band in Duluth be able to play this?’

1984 Washington Post 27 Apr. (Weekend section) 37/3 Brad Shapiro..produces her outrageous records and stage show, backed by a fine funk outfit, flavored with horns and the latest scratch and synth sounds.

1987 Blues & Soul 3–16 Feb. 9/1 Faze One have fixed it for a 14 year old London rap fan who wrote to the popular show Jim'll Fix It asking to appear with a rap and scratch band.

1988 Listener 31 Mar. 38/1 Peace on Earth had all the hallmarks of a technical exercise..reminiscent of a disc jockey's ‘scratch’ recordings in the way it manipulated actuality to the detriment of ‘meaning’.

1988 Art Feb. 31/1 Malcolm invited me to programme some scratch tapes at the NFT.

1988 Art Feb. 32/2 In the Name of the Gun used scratch staccato techniques.

1734 Round about Coal Fire (ed. 4) iv. 40 Old Scratch or Nicholas the Antient.

1756 T. Amory Life John Buncle I. 295 Scratch was the name I had for the evil one.

1762 T. Smollett Adventures Sir Launcelot Greaves II. xxii. 198 He must have sold himself to old scratch.

1858 A. Trollope Three Clerks II. iv. 82 He'd have pitched me to Old Scratch..if..he'd have had his own way.

1873 W. Carleton Farm Ballads 43 Do you mind my melon-patch—How you gobbled the whole batch,..just to raise the scratch?

1849 R. S. Surtees Soapey Sponge's Sporting Tour xxii, in New Monthly Magazine Aug. 510 A scratch map he had made on a bit of paper.

?1527 L. Andrewe tr. Noble Lyfe Bestes sig. oiii They put their bylles in y^e erthe sometyme so depe that they can nat gete it vp agayne & than they scratche theyr billes out agayn with theyr fete.

1617 F. Moryson Itinerary i. 247 I found they [sc. jackals] had scratched up the earth almost to his body.

1867 R. Broughton Cometh up as Flower II. v. 74 We..found the doomed chanticleer scratching and scraping peaceably on the dunghill.