scrattlev.
dialect.
1. intransitive. To keep on scratching; transitive to scrape away by quickly repeated movements.
ΚΠ
1739 W. Shenstone Let. in Wks. (1777) III. 5 I sat down, and wrote thus far: scrattle, scrattle, goes the pen.
1817 R. Wilbraham Attempt Gloss. Cheshire Scrattle, to scratch, as fowls do.
1870 Daily News 16 Apr. The authoress..can toil through a long day ‘scrattling’ the snow away from frozen sheep.
2. (See quot. 1864.)
ΚΠ
1817 H. L. Piozzi Let. 4 Jan. in Autobiogr. Mrs. Piozzi (1861) II. 187 Coal carts scrattling up the hill often used to make me think—‘Hinc ex audiri gemitus, et sæva sonare Verbera; tum stridor ferri, tractæque catenæ.’
1855 C. Kingsley Westward Ho! xxx Nobody..cared for nothing but scrattling up and down alongshore like to prawns in a pule.
1864 C. Kingsley Roman & Teuton vii. 175 With west-countrymen, to ‘scrattle’ still means to scramble, or shuffle about.
Derivatives
ˈscrattling n. and adj. scraping, scratching.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > hearing and noise > degree, kind, or quality of sound > unpleasant quality > harsh or discordant quality > [noun] > scratching or scraping
scraping1561
scrabbling1582
screed?a1669
scratching1776
scratch1787
scritch-scratch1842
scrooping1849
scroopa1859
scrattling1861
scritch-scratching1881
scrape1886
scritch1953
1861 T. Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. I. iii. 43 A bouncing and scrattling was heard on the stairs, and a white bulldog rushed in.
1913 D. H. Lawrence Sons & Lovers iv. 75 In this flamin', scrattlin' place.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1911; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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