to scratch up
8
3.5
- phrasal verb
- After years of use, the phone screen is scratched up and needs replacing.
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Watch on YouTubeIt too would get scratched up and it would also shatter.
- It too would get scratched up and it would also shatter.
- I have my highly scratched up old pair and I have my new pair from Amazon.
- No windows, no air conditioner, not even a fan wood floor, scratched up wood floor.
Examples
-
Lucky for her, she didn't scratch it up.
Fiction book (1999) -
You know, air tags can get pretty scratched up when they're on your keychain.
-
My camera is all scratched up, but as long as the lens is OK, we're OK.
-
They scratched it up a little.
-
Weirdly it looks like the Apple logo has been scratched up a little bit.
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He scratched up the wooden table when he moved the chair across it.
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The cat scratched up the sofa while trying to sharpen its claws.
Synonyms
100
1.1
To cut or mark a surface by scraping it with something sharp
93
1.2
To rub material off a surface with something hard or sharp
37
1.1
To scratch or tear something with a sharp nail
31
3.5
To make a small cut on the skin or a surface, often by accident
13
3.6
To damage a surface by scraping it with something
10
8.4
To scratch a car's paint with a sharp object
7
3.8
To make a small dent in something, for example on a car or phone
5
4.3
Make a harsh scraping sound by rubbing things together
1
4.9
Make a small scratch or chip in a painted surface
1
3.9
To remove small pieces from a surface by cutting or hitting it
1
9.2
To make small cuts in seed coats so they take in water and grow
To make a small dent or bump in something by hitting it lightly
Antonyms
How Damaged
Surface Forms
Morphology
scratch + up
The general sense can be partly derived from the constituents: 'scratch' (here slang for money) names the resource and the particle 'up' commonly signals gathering or completion, so a learner who knows both could infer 'get together some money.' However, the noun sense of 'scratch' as money is colloquial and the nuance of difficulty/‘scraping together’ is metaphorical and not fully predictable, so it is not fully transparent.
Etymology
Scratch up comes from the image of a sharp thing making many small marks on a surface, like a cat's claws on a sofa or someone dragging a key across wood. Imagine the surface being roughened and cut — that's why it means 'to damage the surface by making small cuts or marks'.