scrap

¹

[ skrap ]

noun

1. a small piece or portion; fragment: scraps of cloth.

   a scrap of paper;

   scraps of cloth.

2. scraps,
   1. bits or pieces of food, especially of leftover or discarded food.
   2. the remains of animal fat after the oil has been rendered; cracklings.
3. a detached piece of something written or printed:

   scraps of poetry.

4. broken, discarded, or rejected items or parts for use as raw material or in reprocessing, as old metal that can be melted and reworked:

   The two of them drive around collecting scrap to sell.

5. chips, cuttings, fragments, or other small pieces of raw material removed, cut away, flaked off, etc., in the process of making or manufacturing an item:

   Their cutting process is faster, but have you seen the amount of scrap it generates?

adjective

1. consisting of pieces or fragments.
2. existing in the form of fragments or remnants of use only for reworking, as metal.
3. discarded or left over:

   She was fashioning a toy out of some scrap wood.

verb (used with object)

, scrapped, scrap·ping.

1. to break up into pieces for discarding or reworking:

   to scrap old cars.

2. to discard as useless, worthless, or ineffective:

   He urged that we scrap the old method of teaching mathematics.

scrap

²

[ skrap ]

noun

1. a fight or quarrel:

   She got into a scrap with her in-laws.

verb (used without object)

, scrapped, scrap·ping.

1. to engage in a fight or quarrel.

scrap

¹

/ skræp /

noun

1. a fight or argument

verb

1. intr to quarrel or fight

scrap

²

/ skræp /

noun

1. a small piece of something larger; fragment
2. an extract from something written
3. 1. waste material or used articles, esp metal, often collected and reprocessed
   2. ( as modifier )

      scrap iron

4. plural pieces of discarded food

verb

1. to make into scrap
2. to discard as useless

Other Words From

• scrap·ping·ly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of scrap¹

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English noun scrappe “scrap of food,” from Old Norse skrap, derivative of skrapa “to scrape ”

Origin of scrap²

First recorded in 1670–80; variant of scrape

Word History and Origins

Origin of scrap¹

C17: perhaps from scrape

Origin of scrap²

C14: from Old Norse skrap; see scrape

Example Sentences

To make matters worse, HSBC sparked anger in Hong Kong earlier this year, alienating some of its most loyal investors, after scrapping its dividend in response to the pandemic.

From Fortune

It was at that moment that I scrapped the recipe I had written for a standing mixer, and rewrote it to work by hand.

From Popular-Science

From 2011 to 2019, less than one-third of postseason scraps occurred in the first 15 minutes, while 56 percent happened in the final period.

From FiveThirtyEight

Of the 11 postseason scraps, eight occurred in the opening period.

From FiveThirtyEight

Some organizations diverted more resources to their performance marketing campaigns, leaving their brand marketing efforts with the scraps.

From Search Engine Land

Related Words

• chunk
• fragment
• grain
• hunk
• lump
• morsel
• shred
• sliver
• snippet
• speck