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Glite Dictionary
💉 Small skin cuts 🪶 Decorative scars 🌱 Surface scratching
scarification

scarification

8.7
Making small cuts on seeds to help them grow or on surfaces for decoration
  • noun
  • /ˌskærɪfɪˈkeɪʃən/
translation icon : escarificación
  • The gardener used scarification techniques on the lawn to encourage new grass growth in the spring.

Examples

  • After the scarification of the tree bark, the botanist observed an increase in sap production.

  • Application requires scarification of the substrate by brush blasting followed by a thorough cleaning.

    Academic text (1998)

  • Those Ewa drawn from Eguadase were thus originally Igala and may be the source of the Ewa figures' "cat-whisker" marks, for those scarifications were found among the Igala.

    Academic text (1997)

  • Traditional scarification practices are often seen in tribal cultures as a form of body art.

Antonyms

to preserve
496 3.4

To keep people and things safe from harm or change

repair
352 2.3

Work done to fix something that is broken

How Deep

to gouge
20 7.2
to carve
272 2.1
scarification
8.7
to scratch
161 1.1
score
13 7.8

Surface Forms

scarification singular
scarifications plural

Morphology

scarification = scarify (transparent) = scar + ify + ation

The horticultural/agricultural sense (making cuts/scratches on surfaces or seed coats) is a straightforward extension of 'scarify' and is nominalized by '-ation'.

Etymology

Scarification uses the root scar, which means 'cut or mark'. In gardening and plant care it means making small cuts or scratches on seeds, soil, or grass to help growth or improve the surface, so the origin shows why the word means making such cuts.