score
/skɔː
/noun
1The number of points, goals, runs, etc. achieved in a game or by a team or an individual: the final score was 4-3 to Royston...
- US soccer fans will be alerted to goals scored and conceded, along with half-time and full-time scores every time their team plays.
- Students counted daily attendances and absences, team numbers, scores in games, chairs and tables, and counted down the days to important events in their lives.
- The final score reflected the home team's dominance, although the Oxford athletes put on a good show and should be encouraged by their performances at such an early stage of the season.
Synonyms
result, outcome;
number of goals/runs/points, total, sum total, tally, count
1.1 informal An act of gaining a goal or point in a game.This bonus is potentially the most important score for players, as it helps fill up your flash-o-meter....
- The only other score of the game came at the end of the third quarter for the Pipers on a 23-yard field goal attempt.
- Munson snuck into the end zone from two yards out for the Scots' second touchdown score.
1.2A rating or grade, such as a mark achieved in a test: an IQ score of 161...
- Grades and test scores are important, but what a student can bring to a university community can sometimes be even more significant.
- Impressive test scores and grades help, of course.
- Also, children whose mothers gave disapproving looks, criticized them and gave support had lower verbal and math scores on the IQ test.
Synonyms
rating, grade, mark, percentage
1.3 (the score) informal The state of affairs; the facts about the present situation: ‘What’s wrong Simon? What’s the score?’
Synonyms
the situation, the position, the facts, the truth of the matter, the (true) state of affairs, the picture, the story, how things stand, the lie of the land;
British the state of play;
North American the lay of the land
informal the set-up, what's what
1.4 informal An act of buying illegal drugs: she made her first score from a dealer in Times Square
1.5 informal The proceeds of a crime: robbers usually case a score a few times before they go in...
- He's going to make one last big score, get out of the business.
2 (plural same) A group or set of twenty or about twenty: a score of men lost their lives in the battle Doyle’s success brought imitators by the score...
- Reports came swarming in by the score, of the damage done to the coastal towns and forests.
- Now he's at it again, wiping out landmarks by the score.
- For a city with hotels by the score, Seattle can be a tough place to find a bed.
2.1 (scores of) A large number of something: he sent scores of enthusiastic letters to friends...
- Air speeds of a few thousand miles an hour are of little use in the exploration of planets scores of million miles away, let alone solar systems light years beyond our own.
- When he returned, 17 years later, it was as a hugely successful entertainer with scores of hit records to his credit.
- Islam is a religion with hundreds of millions of followers in scores of diverse countries.
Synonyms
a great many, a lot, a great/good deal, a large/great number/amount, great quantities, plenty, a host, hosts, a crowd, crowds, droves, a bevy, bevies, an army, armies, a horde, hordes, a flock, flocks, herds, a throng, throngs, legions, a multitude, multitudes, a swarm, swarms;
copious, abundant, profuse, an abundance, a profusion
informal lots, umpteen, loads, masses, stacks, scads, heaps, piles, bags, tons, oodles, dozens, hundreds, thousands, millions, billions, zillions, more … than one can shake a stick at
British informal shedloads, a shedload
North American informal a slew, a bunch, gazillions, gobs, bazillions
Australian/New Zealand informal a swag
vulgar slang a shitload
literary myriad, divers
3A written representation of a musical composition showing all the vocal and instrumental parts arranged one below the other.Ideally, one might wish for translations to the texts of the vocal examples and a few more musical scores for the CDs, so that one could follow more of the points being made....
- Many were the instruments and singers interchanging scores and vocal lines during the Baroque Era.
- The top floor features bedrooms, the Maestro's old study-work room, and copious shelving for books, musical scores and the like.
3.1The music composed for a film or play: a film score...
- While Carpenter is known as a great director, he's also very good at creating atmospheric music scores for his films.
- From popular music genres to various folk musics to film score and cartoon soundtracks - any style is fair game.
- Elmer Bernstein composed the musical scores of five feature films in 1953, his third year as a film composer.
4A notch or line cut or scratched into a surface: check the shaft for scratches and scores
Synonyms
scratch, nick, notch, snick, scrape, groove, chip, cut, gouge, incision, slit, gash;
mark
archaic scotch
4.1 historical A running account kept by marks against a customer’s name, typically in a public house.
verb [with object]
1Gain (a point, goal, run, etc.) in a competitive game: McCartney scored a fine goal [no object]: Wilson outstripped his marker to score...
- He scored a record 49 times for England in 106 games, but is equally hailed for his sense of fair play.
- Mark scored one of the most amazing baskets ever, it was unbelievable.
- On April 16th he scored a total of 61 points against the Atlanta Hawks setting a new NBA record.
Synonyms
get, gain, chalk up, win, achieve, attain, make;
record
informal notch up, bag, knock up, rack up
1.1Be worth (a number of points): a yes answer scores ten points...
- The higher card wins and that player sets that card aside scoring the number of pips on it.
- On each hand your team scores the total number of penalty points you have taken in your tricks.
- And quibbles they are: as a film which, from the outset, devotes itself unashamedly to style over substance, it scores top marks.
1.2 [no object] Record the score during a game; act as scorer: the important thing is to score neatly
Synonyms
keep (the) score, keep count, keep a record, keep a tally
1.3 Baseball Cause (a teammate) to score: Abe Herbst singled, scoring Norman and Lang
1.4 informal Secure (a success or an advantage): the band scored a hit single...
- The 2nd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division (on camera) scored a significant success earlier in the day.
- With the labor-union allies it has cultivated, it has even helped create new parties that have scored real successes.
- From its first appearance on the New York art-scene it scored a triumph with collectors.
Synonyms
be successful, be a success, achieve success, win, triumph, make an impression, have an impact, go down well, get an enthusiastic reception
informal be a hit, be a winner, be a sell-out, go down a storm
1.5 (score off) British informal Outdo or humiliate (someone) in an argument.He does not radiate the same enjoyment in scoring off Tony Blair as he did when his main targets were the Crown and Conservatism, both social and political....
- It's clear that Joyce used the first part to score off his erstwhile friends-turned-enemies.
Synonyms
get the better of, gain an advantage over, outdo, best, worst, have the edge over;
have the last laugh on, make a fool of, humiliate
informal get/be one up on, get one over on
1.6 informal Buy or acquire (something, typically illegal drugs): Sally had scored some acid...
- A dope dealer doesn't just pop up on my computer and say, This is how you can score illegal drugs.
- Deena rarely saw her mom because her mom was always away partying and trying to score drugs.
- Even the one older character, Rory, is a screwed-up social worker who scores drugs from his clients.
1.7 [no object] informal Succeed in attracting a sexual partner for a casual encounter: he thought he could score with bimbos by telling crude jokes...
- Finally, after decades of foreplay, a gay man on TV scored.
- You don't have to have nerves of steel to score with women.
- Straight men who want to score with their women look to us for advice.
2Orchestrate or arrange (a piece of music), typically for a specified instrument or instruments: the Quartet Suite was scored for flute, violin, viola da gamba, and continuo...
- I'd love to work with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra to score the music for one of his titles.
- Music is also scored to the fight action and to that rhythm.
- So, I will be working with Martinu's Double Concerto - scored for two strings orchestras, piano and timpani.
Synonyms
orchestrate, arrange, set, adapt;
write, compose
rare instrument
2.1Compose the music for (a film or play): he’d previously scored the first and fifth films...
- The music coordinators must have run out of ideas because much of the film is scored with other movie soundtracks.
- On top of that, he also scores the entire film with surf music.
- I scored the film to Howard Hanson's ‘Fantasy Variations on a Theme of Youth.’
3Cut or scratch a notch or line on (a surface): score the card until you cut through...
- Its white sides are scored and scratched, and my vines have spilled over the edge of the deck.
- He put his hands down on the table, letting his claws score the wooden surface lightly.
- Carefully place the pastry rounds on a large non-stick baking sheet and score the surface in a diamond pattern, using the tip of a small sharp knife.
Synonyms
scratch, cut, make a notch/notches in, make a groove/grooves in, notch, incise, scrape, nick, snick, chip, gouge, slit, gash;
mark;
cross-hatch;
carve, engrave
archaic scotch
3.1 (score something out/through) Delete text by drawing a line through it.That influx of perhaps tens of thousands of visitors was lost when he scored a red line through the solo bid proposal....
- Thus, with reference to a picture depicting Tobias, Rembrandt (which can be seen under the line scoring it through) was the first name that came to the experts' minds.
- ‘Further entries were scored out in black felt-tip marker pen and cannot be read by the naked eye,’ said the tribunal report.
Synonyms
cross out, strike out, put a line through, ink out, blue-pencil, scratch out;
delete, obliterate, expunge
3.2 historical Record (a total owed) by making marks against a customer’s name: a slate on which the old man scored up vast accounts
4 Medicine & Biology Examine (experimentally treated cells, bacterial colonies, etc.), making a record of the number showing a particular character: the aim should be to score between fifty and one hundred mitotic cells...
- One hundred randomly selected metaphase cells were scored for the presence of chromatid gaps and breaks.
- She says the traditional approach for evaluating a fluid milk's sensory characteristics scores the product against a list of commonly found defects.
Phrases
keep (the) score
know the score
on the score of
on that (or this) score
score points
settle (or pay) a (or the) score
Origin
Late Old English scoru 'set of twenty', from Old Norse skor 'notch, tally, twenty', of Germanic origin; related to shear. The verb (late Middle English) is from Old Norse skora 'make an incision'.
scotch from early 17th century:
To scotch or decisively put an end to something derives from an old use of the word for a wedge placed under a wheel to prevent it moving or slipping. Another use of scotch, ‘to make something temporarily harmless’, goes back to a line from Shakespeare's Macbeth: ‘We have scotched the snake, not killed it.’ This is not what originally appeared in Shakespeare's text, where the word first used was ‘scorched’, meaning ‘slashed with a knife’. This was an alteration of score but was short-lived, and later editors wondered what on earth burning the skin of a snake had to do with it, assuming that ‘scorched’ must be a printer's error. The origin of scotch itself is unknown, but score (Old English) comes from Old Norse ‘to make a cut or notch’. The term for twenty comes from counting by cutting notches in a piece of wood called a tally, with the word for the notch transferred to the number.