different between scrab vs scrag

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sk?æb/
• Rhymes: -æb

Etymology 1

Middle French and Old French schrabben (“to scrape, scratch”), from Frankish *skaban, from Proto-Germanic *skaban?, from Proto-Indo-European *skab?- (“to scratch”); compare Old High German skaban, Irish scríobann and sgrìoban.

Verb

scrab (third-person singular simple present scrabs, present participle scrabbing, simple past and past participle scrabbed)

1. (transitive) To scrape or scratch.

Derived terms

• scrabbed eggs
• scrabber

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English scrabbe, variant of crabbe (“crabapple”); ultimately of Germanic origin, plausibly from North Germanic, cognate with Swedish dialect scrabba, krabbäpple.

Noun

scrab (plural scrabs)

1. A crabapple.

Anagrams

• carbs, cbars, crabs

English

Etymology

Perhaps related to Norwegian skragg (a lean person), dialectal Swedish skragge (old and torn thing), Danish skrog (hull, carcass); perhaps related to shrink.

Pronunciation

Noun

scrag (plural scrags)

1. (archaic) A thin or scrawny person or animal. [from the 16th c.]
   • 1946, Mervyn Peake, Titus Groan

     In any event he might have wakened the long scrag by so doing.

2. (archaic) The lean end of a neck of mutton; the scrag end.
3. (archaic) The neck, especially of a sheep.
4. (Scotland) A scrog. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
5. (Britain, slang, derogatory) A chav or ned; a stereotypically loud and aggressive person of lower social class.
6. (Australia, slang, derogatory) A rough or unkempt woman.
7. A ragged, stunted tree or branch.

Verb

scrag (third-person singular simple present scrags, present participle scragging, simple past and past participle scragged)

1. (obsolete, colloquial) To hang on a gallows, or to choke, garotte, or strangle.
   • Pall Mall Magazine

     An enthusiastic mob will scrag me to a certainty the day war breaks out.

   • 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, p. 37:

     Adrian thought it worth while to try out his new slang... ‘That's beastly talk, Thompson. Jolly well take it back or expect a good scragging.’

2. To harass; to manhandle.
   • 1958, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 15, in Cocktail Time:

     '...I urged him ... to ... try the Ickenham System ... a little thing I knocked together in my bachelor days ... it has a good many points in common with all-in wrestling and osteopathy. I generally recommend it to diffident wooers and it always works like magic...'

     Johnny stared.

     'You mean you told McMurdo to … scrag her?'

3. To destroy or kill.

Translations

Anagrams

• CAGRs, crags