different between scrat vs scrag

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

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