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Glite Dictionary
from scratch

from scratch

98 2.8
To make something using nothing already made
  • idiom
translation icon : desde cero
  • When the software crashed, I had no choice but to build the application from scratch.
  • start from scratch
  • build from scratch
  • create from scratch

So she built this entire leather cover from scratch, which blows my mind.

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Examples

  • Frankly, I think we're better off just starting from scratch on this one.

    The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005)

  • What if we were to start our company from scratch today?

    Evan Carmichael

  • We wanted to start from scratch.

    Chuck Leavell: The Tree Man (2020)

  • I just wanted to start from scratch.

    Control (2004)

  • And so I'm starting from scratch going into the church world.

    Ryan Pineda

  • She said take all the time you need, start from scratch, and get it right.

  • My life's goal is to design and make from scratch everything I touch in my life.

  • We had to build the whole system from scratch in our refrigeration lab.

    Academic text (2008)

  • "Starting an educational services business from scratch would seem like plenty, but Lipper is a driven woman."

    Academic text (2008)

  • If one of them died, I'd have to start from scratch, inventing a new life.

    Fiction book (1996)

Synonyms

from the get-go
vsfrom scratch
  • Informal
52 6.6

Right from the very start

stresses beginning plus absence of existing help or advantages
from the ground up
vsfrom scratch
24 3.7

To build something completely from the very beginning

focuses on starting without using anything or any special advantage
ex nihilo
vsfrom scratch
  • Formal
1 9.9

Made from nothing without using other materials

means starting without using preexisting things or special advantages

Antonyms

head start
82 2.5

An advantage from starting earlier than others that helps you succeed

How New

from scratch
98 2.8
from the get-go
  • Informal
52 6.6
at square one
  • Informal
5 4.9

Surface Forms

from scratch positive
from-scratch positive

Morphology

from + scratch

The phrase literally combines 'from' (indicating origin) with 'scratch' (a marked starting point), so its meaning 'from the very beginning' is directly derivable from the constituents. This compositional origin-based logic is common and learners who know both words at B1 level will readily infer the idiom's sense.

Etymology

From scratch may come from old games where people would scratch a line in the ground to show the start. To begin from that scratch meant to start at the first mark with nothing already done. That's why today from scratch means 'from the very beginning', without using anything already made.