scrape, v. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

scrape v.

1. (also scrape (off) the pavement, scrape the mug) to shave.

1810		‘The Quay-side Shaver’ A Garland of New Songs (1) 3: And as she scrapes round ’em, if by chance wound ’em, / They’ll cry out as tho’ she’d bereav’d them of life.
1834		Westmorland Gaz. 14 June 1/3: The razor merchant who did Bill Jones out of 7s. 6d. for a couple of band-saws to scrape his mug with.
1853		Burnley Advertiser 3 Sept. 3/5: The Englishman who, at the end of his days, has spent about an entire year of his life in scraping off his beard.
1857		‘Ducange Anglicus’ Vulgar Tongue.
1890		Sporting Times 29 Mar. 6/5: What’s worse than a boring barber? Pitcher [...] went into a King’s Cross chin-tearer’s to be scraped.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 70: Scrape, [...] to shave, etc.
1903		A.H. Lewis Boss 150: How about th’ bristles? [...] Shall I have him scraped?
1927		‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V 461: Scrape off the pavement, To shave.
1930		‘Dean Stiff’ Milk and Honey Route 213: Scrape the pavement – To get a shave.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 165: Scrape the Mug.–To shave.
1957		‘Nino Culotta’ They’re a Weird Mob (1958) 132: We’ll wash up an’ scrape off the whiskers an’ knock over a few more bottles before we go, eh?
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 816: scrape the mug – To shave.

2. (Aus.) to look for information.

1895

C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 70: Scrape, [...] to go about the city for news.

3. (US) to vaccinate.

1891

J.A. Riis How the Other Half Lives 80: In mid-winter [...] the sanitary police corral the tramps here and in their lodging-houses and vaccinate them, despite their struggles and many oaths that they have recently been ‘scraped’.

4. (Aus.) to have sexual intercourse [scraper n. (1) suggests a much earlier use].

1959		D. Stuart Yandy 4: Like Jessie, Larrian was ready to scrape with the whitefellers.
1975		R. Macklin Queenslander 43: We rolled her over on the beach and started scraping.

5. (US, also scrape out) to perform an abortion.

1975		T. Berger Sneaky People (1980) 158: I ain’t going have it scraped out.
1986		R. Campbell In La-La Land We Trust (1999) 26: Thank God he didn’t have to [...] find doctors to scrape out the pussies of his starlets.
2001		(con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 36: Frank did scrapes. Frank scraped Rita Hayworth. Frank was Abortionist to the Stars.
2010		J. Ellroy Hilliker Curse 13: Jean got pregnant, tried to scrape herself and hemorrhaged.

6. (US black/teen) to have one’s car lowered to such an extent that it scrapes the road and shoots up showers of sparks.

1980

E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 253: scrape Drop the body of a car to the ground so that the body scrapes the ground, causing sparks to fly.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

scrape-all (n.) [they scrape everything into their own hands/pocket]

1. an unpleasant person.

1633		Jonson Tale of a Tub IV iii: Thou scrape-hill [sic] scoundrel, and thou scum of man.
1688		Shadwell Squire of Alsatia [dramatis personae] Scrapeall. Mr. Freeman. A hypocritical, repeating, praying, Psalm, singing, precise fellow, pretending to great piety, a godly Knave.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew.
1801		Morn. Post (London) 24 Mar. 3/3: Lord Cloncurry, though by no means a spendthrift, is [...] far removed from the scrape-all.
1834		Bradford Obs. 29 Aug. 4/2: To those Sleek, Pious, Holy and Devout Dissenters, Mesrs. Get-all, Keep-all, Grasp-all, Scrape-all, Whip-all [etc].

2. a miser.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Scrape-all, a Money-Scrivener; also a miserable Wretch, or griping Fellow.
1840		West Kent Guardian 28 Mar. 8/1: A Unitarian [...] of considerable notoriety as a ‘rigler’ scrape-all in parish affairs.

In phrases

scrape Dixie (v.) [Dixie n.]

(US black) to walk the streets of a Southern city or town in search of work.

1947

M.H. Boulware Jive and Sl.

scrape one’s horns (v.)

see under horn n.²

scrape the barrel (v.) (also scrape the bottom of the barrel, ...the bucket, scrape the pot)

1. to make do with the most mediocre people, objects etc, simply because no others exist.

1901		Bulletin (Sydney) 13 July 11/1: The last Vic. contingent seems to have been the ‘scrapings of the pot’. One of them writes that only 400 out of 1000 were fit for service after reaching Pretoria. The rest stayed behind sick – some of them, the writer unkindly suggests, of ‘pom-pom’ fever.
1942		Time 12 Jan. 57/1: The medical profession...[is] closer to scraping the bottom of the bucket...than any other occupation, trade or profession .
1946		Aberdeen Press 12 Apr. 2/2: They must, in fact, scrape the barrel, and even then there will be hardly enough to go round.
1955		N.Y. Times Bk Rev. 30 Oct. 1/1: It was built in the spring of 1864, when the Confederacy was scraping the bottom of its barrel of men and resources.
1979		A. Payne ‘The Dessert Song’ Minder [TV script] 35: You been scraping the barrel yourself.

2. to utilize the very last of one’s resources, irrespective of quality.

2003

R. Dawkins A Devil’s Chaplain 184: At this point we scrape the barrel of excuses.

In exclamations

go (away/in) and scrape yourself!

a general excl. of dismissal or contempt.

1892		Western Morn. News 6 Oct. 5/2: Nicholls [...] said he did not say to Miss Friggens ‘Go in and scrape yourself’.
1906		E. Pugh Spoilers 2: The other extended a big red hand. ‘Brother ...’ ‘Go an’ scrape yourself!’ was the response.
1917		Wkly Freeman’s Jrnl 24 Mar. 3/5: ‘Go away and scrape yourself, go on!’.

go scrape! [? trans. of Fr. envoyer au grat, to dismiss from employment, lit. ‘to send grazing’]

go away!

1611

R. Cotgrave Dict. of Fr. and Eng. Tongues n.p.: Envoyer au grat [...] a Maister to put away his man (and, perhaps with this phrase came our contemptuous, Goe scrape).