Scraping

How to spell scraping

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce scraping

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does scraping mean?

1. verbRemoving material from a surface by dragging a hard edge across it.
2. verbAutomatically extracting data from websites or documents using software.

Scraping in a sentence

• He spent the morning scraping old paint off the windowsill.

• The company was accused of scraping user details from public profiles.

• Scraping the ice from the windscreen took several minutes.

• Scraping prices from competitor sites helped them set their own rates.

Where does scraping come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

The base verb 'scrape' descends from the Old Norse skrapa, meaning to scratch or to scrape, which was reinforced by the related Old English verb scrapian, meaning to scratch with the fingernails. Both go back to a common Germanic root tied to the idea of grating or rubbing a surface roughly. By the time it settled into Middle English it carried its modern sense of dragging a hard edge across a surface to remove material. The figurative meanings grew naturally from this: 'scraping by' on little money, or 'scraping together' resources, both picture someone gathering up the last scrapings of something. The spelling 'scraping' drops the silent 'e' of 'scrape' before adding '-ing', which is the usual English rule and the main thing to remember, since the long 'a' sound is still preserved by the single consonant and following 'i'.

How the word is built

• scrape (from Old Norse skrapa: to scratch or scrape)
• -ing (forming present participle and verbal noun)