Scran-bag, a soldier’s haversack.—Military Slang.
Scrap, to fight. Also used as a substantive. Prize-fighters are often known as SCRAPPERS.
Scrape, a difficulty; SCRAPE, low wit for a shave.
Scrape, cheap butter; also butter laid on bread in the thinnest possible manner, as though it had been laid on and scraped off again. “Bread and SCRAPE,” the bread and butter issued to schoolboys,—so called from the manner in which the butter is laid on.
Scratch, an imaginary meeting-point in a fight, or verbal contest; “coming up to the SCRATCH,” preparing to fight—literally approaching the line which used to be chalked on the ground to divide the ring. According to the rules of the prize ring, the toe should be placed at the SCRATCH, so the phrase often is “toeing the SCRATCH.”
Scratch, “no great SCRATCH,” of little worth.
Scratch, to strike a horse’s name out of the list of runners in a particular race. “Tomboy was SCRATCHED for the Derby at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, from which period all bets made in reference to him are void.” See [P.P.]—Turf. One of Boz’s characters asks whether horses are “really made more lively by being SCRATCHED.”
Scratch-race (on the turf), a race at which the horses run at catch weights, a race without restrictions. In boating, a race in which the crew are picked up anyhow. A SCRATCH crew is a crew of all sorts.
Screaming, first-rate, splendid. Believed to have been first used in the Adelphi play-bills; “a SCREAMING farce,” one calculated to make the audience scream with laughter. Now a general expression.
Screed, an illogical or badly-written article or paper upon any subject.