unscratched
1
4.0
Still entered in a race or competition
- adjective
- /ʌnˈskrætʃt/
:
sin retirar
- After the event, no one was unscratched as they had all given their best effort.
Examples
-
All the players who registered for the tournament are unscratched and ready to compete.
-
John is bug-eyed with fear, but completely unscratched.
Fiction book (1991) -
She remained unscratched despite the intense competition in the race.
Surface Forms
unscratched positive
Morphology
unscratched = scratched (semi-transparent) = un + scratch + ed
The form is a straightforward negation of 'scratched', but the relevant sense of 'scratch' meaning 'to withdraw' is specialized and may not be known to average learners.
Etymology
Unscratched comes from un- 'not' and scratch 'to take a name off a list', so in competitions it means 'still entered' or 'not withdrawn'.