different between scrab vs scrat

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 1

From Middle English scratten. Origin uncertain; apparently related to Swedish kratta (“to rake”).

Verb

scrat (third-person singular simple present scrats, present participle scratting, simple past and past participle scratted)

1. (obsolete) To scratch, to use one's nails or claws.
   • , New York Review of Books, 2001, p.286:

     Euclio […] as he went from home, seeing a crow scrat upon the muck-hill, returned in all haste, taking it for malum omen, an ill sign […].

2. (obsolete, Britain) To rake; to search.
   • 1978, A.S. Byatt, The Virgin in The Garden, Vintage International 1992, p.89

     He himself had scratted in the thin dust of evangelical tracts.

Etymology 2

Compare Old English scritta (“a hermaphrodite”), Aguano scrut (“a scrub, a low, mean person”).

Noun

scrat (plural scrats)

1. (obsolete) A hermaphrodite.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Skinner to this entry?)

Etymology 3

Compare German Schratt and Old Norse skratti.

Noun

scrat (plural scrats)

1. (obsolete) A devil.

Related terms

• Old Scratch

Anagrams

• C-rats, CARTs, Carts, SCART, carts, crats, scart