1860. W. H. Russell, Diary in India, I. 189. His last act is to try and get his name scratched.
1868. Whyte-Melville, White Rose, I. xiii. How's the hoose?. . . You haven't scratched him, have ye?
1884. D. Telegraph, 25 August, 3, 4. An acceptance of fourteen has already been cut down to a dozen by the scratching of Jetsam and Loch Ranza. Ibid. (1885), 6 Oct. One of his owner's first actions . . . was to scratch the horse.
1885. D. Chronicle, 3 July. The Eton boys . . . made up their minds on Wednesday evening to scratch.
1888. D. Chronicle, 10 Dec. Grimsby Town received a bye, Gainsborough Trinity having scratched to them.
1888. Sp. Life, 18 Dec. As she was clearly handicapped out of the race at Wye I had no option but to scratch her.
2. (colloquial).—To scribble: as subs. = a scrawl. Scratcher (U. S.) = a daybook.
d. 1745. Swift [Century]. If any of their labourers can scratch out a pamphlet, they desire no wit, style, or argument.
1172. Eliot, Middlemarch, lxxv. This is Chichely's scratch. What is he writing to you about.
1887. Phil. Ledger, 30 Dec. He [a bank teller] would not enter deposits in his scratcher after a certain hour.
Phrases.—No great scratch = of little value; Old Scratch (q.v.); to scratch one's wool (tailors') = to try one's memory, to puzzle out; 'Scratch my breech and I'll claw your elbow' (Ka me, Ka thee, q.v.); not a sixpence to scratch his arse with = penniless.
1844. Major Jones's Courtship Detailed, 136. There are a good many Joneses in Georgia, and I know some myself that ain't no great scratches.
Scratched, adj. (Old Cant).—Drunk:
see Screwed. [Taylor,
Water Poet, 1630].
Scratcher, subs. (American).—1.
An independent elector; a
bolter (q.v.)
1883. Atlantic Monthly, lii. 327. To whom a scratcher is more hateful than the Beast.
See Scratch, verb. 2.
Scrawny, subs. (American).—A
thin, ill-made man or woman; a
rasher of wind (q.v.).
1890. Detroit Free Press, 21 June, 5, 3. If the line is to be drawn between the scrawny and the adipose, the scrawnies have it. They are full of delightful possibilities.
Screamer, subs. (common).—1.
An exceptional person or thing:
hence screaming = first-rate,
splendid: spec. as causing screams
of laughter.
1846. Thorpe, Backwoods [Century]. If he's a specimen of the Choctaws that live in these parts, they are screamers.
1847. Porter, Quarter Race, 189. 'Now look out for a screamer!'
1853. Wh. Melville, Digby Grand, xx. I am in for a screamer, and the bill for which I am arrested is only a ruse to prevent my leaving England.
1864. Hotten, Slang Dict, s.v. Screaming. . . . Believed to have been used in the Adelphi play-bills: "a screaming farce," one calculated to make the audience scream with laughter.
1874. Siliad, 49. There'll be no child's play in the Russian dug, 'Twill be a screamer, and a frightful tug.
1879. Braddon, Cloven Foot, vi. "Well," cried the manager, radiant, "a screaming success. There's money in it. I shall run this three hundred nights."
1883. D. Telegraph, 19 Jan., 3, 5. A more amusing half-hour could not be spent than under the influence of this farce, which, in the old Adelphi days would most emphatically have been called a screamer. Ibid. (1888), 8 Dec. The 'Deputy-Registrar' is a screamer indeed.
1888. Runciman, Chequers, 38. She's a screamer, she's a real swell.
