scrap

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English

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /skɹæp/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -æp

Etymology 1

From Middle English scrappe, from Old Norse skrap, from skrapa (“to scrape, scratch”), from Proto-Germanic *skrapōną, *skrepaną (“to scrape, scratch”), from Proto-Indo-European *skreb-, *skrep- (“to engrave”).

Noun

scrap (countable and uncountable, plural scraps)

  1. A (small) piece; a fragment; a detached, incomplete portion.
    I found a scrap of cloth to patch the hole.
    • 1852, Thomas De Quincey, “Sir William Hamilton”, in Hogg's Instructor:
      I have no materials — not a scrap.
    1. The smallest amount.
      Synonyms: bit, jot; see also Thesaurus:modicum
      I don't care a scrap.
      • 1920, [Elizabeth von Arnim], In the Mountains, Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, page 188:
        “I don't mind anything. I don't mind your being technically German a scrap. All I think is that it was a little—well, perhaps a little excessive to marry another German when you had done it once already. […] ”
  2. (usually in the plural) Leftover food.
    Give the scraps to the animals: any meat to the dogs, and the rest to the hogs.
  3. The crisp substance that remains after drying out animal fat.
    pork scraps
  4. (uncountable) Discarded objects (especially metal) that may be dismantled to recover their constituent materials, junk.
    English Wikipedia has an article on:
    Wikipedia
    That car isn't good for anything but scrap.
    • 2017, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Bad Dad, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN:
      “We need a set of wheels to carry out this plan of yours.”
      “Queenie?”
      “We need her now more than ever.”
      “Will she still be in the field where we left her?”
      “No, no, no. The fuzz will have towed her away by now.”
      “Where will she be, then?”
      “They will have sold the old girl off for scrap.”
  5. (UK, in the plural) A piece of deep-fried batter left over from frying fish, sometimes sold with chips.
    Synonym: gribble
  7. (uncountable) Loose-leaf tobacco of a low grade, such as sweepings left over from handling higher grades.
    Synonym: trash
  8. (ethnic slur, offensive) A Hispanic criminal, especially a Mexican or one affiliated with the Sureno gang.
  9. (obsolete) A snare for catching birds.
Derived terms
Translations

Verb

scrap (third-person singular simple present scraps, present participle scrapping, simple past and past participle scrapped)

  1. (transitive) To discard; to get rid of.
    • 2023 May 29, Jonathan Head, “Pita Limjaroenrat: Thai election upstart who vows to be different”, in BBC‎[1]:
      The party plans to scrap the military-drafted constitution, and bring the army's many business interests under the Ministry of Finance.
  2. (transitive, of a project or plan) To stop working on indefinitely.
  3. (intransitive) To scrapbook; to create scrapbooks.
  4. (transitive) To dispose of at a scrapyard.
    • 2020 May 20, John Crosse, “Soon to be gone... but never forgotten”, in Rail, page 63:
      Northern made much of the scrapping of the first of the Pacers (142005), and to date 35 of its Class 142s have been scrapped, with a further 11 off-lease at Gascoigne Wood.
  5. (transitive) To make into scrap.
    • 1939 September, D. S. Barrie, “The Railways of South Wales”, in Railway Magazine, page 165:
      Standing on the mountain above Caerphilly, one may reflect upon the gap where once stood Llanbradach Viaduct, and look near at hand upon the restored ruins of Caerphilly Castle; man labours to rebuild the mediaeval whilst he ruthlessly scraps the modern.
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 2

Perhaps from the obsolete colloquial meaning "sinister plot, scheme, villainy", or a dialectal variant of scrape.

Noun

scrap (plural scraps)

  1. A fight, tussle, skirmish.
    We got in a little scrap over who should pay the bill.
Translations

Verb

scrap (third-person singular simple present scraps, present participle scrapping, simple past and past participle scrapped)

  1. to fight
Translations

Anagrams

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