1. To rub hard with any thing rough, in order to clean the surface.

I were better to be eaten to death with a rust, than to be scour'd to nothing with perpetual motion. Sbakspeare. By dint of sword his crown he shall increase, And scour his armour from the rust of peace. Dryden. Part scour the rusty shields with seam, and part New grind the blunted ax, and point the dart. Dryden.

Some blamed Mrs. Bull for grudging a quarter of a pound of soap and sand to scour the rooms. Arbuthnot.

Poor Vadius, long with learned spleen devour'd,

4. To rove; to range.

2. To purge violently.

Pope.

3. To cleanse; to bleach; to whiten; to blanche.

In some lakes the water is so nitrous, as if foul clothese put into it, it scoureth them of itself; and, if they stay, they moulder away. Bacon.

A garden-worm should be well scoured eight days in moss, before you fish with him. Walten. Beneath the lamp her tawdiy ribbons glare, The new scour'd manteau, and the slattern air.

4. To remove by scouring.

Never came reformation in a flood
With such a heady current, scouring faults;
Nor ever hydra-headed wilfulness
So soon did lose his seat, and all at once,
As in this king.

Gay.

Shakspeare.

I will wear a garment all of blood, And stain my favour in a bloody mask, Which, wash'd away, shall scour my shame with it. Shakspeare.

Then, in the clemency of upward air. We'll scour our spots, and the dire thunder's Dryden.

scar.

5. [scorrere, Italian.] To rangé about, in order to catch or drive away something; to clear away.

The kings of Lacedemon having sent out some gallies, under the charge of one of their nephews, to scour the sea of the pirates, they met Sidney.

us.

Divers are kept continually to scour these seas, infested greatly by pirates. Sanivs.

If with thy guards thou scour'st the streets by

night, And dost in murders, rapes, and spoils, delight, Please not thyself the flatt'ring crowd to hear, Dryden.

6. To pass swiftly over.

Sometimes

The enemy's drum is heard, and fearful scourDoth choak the air with dust.

Shakspeare.

6. To run with great eagerness and swift

When he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple. The scourge Inexorable, and the torturing hour, Call us to penance.

Milton.

2. A punishment; a vindictive affliction.
What scourge for perjury
Can this dark monarchy atford false Clarence?
Sbakspeare.

See what a scourge is laid upon your hate, That Heav'n finds means to kill your joys with Si akspeare. Famine and plague are sent as scourges for amendment. 2 Esdras.

love.

3. One that afflicts, harasses, or destroys.
Thus Attila was called Aagellum Dei.
Is this the scourge of France?
Is this the Talbot so much fear'd abroad,
That with his name the mothers still their babes!

Shakspeare.

Such conquerors are not the favourites but scourges of God, the instruments of that vengeAtterbury.

ance.

In all these trials I have borne a part; I was myself the scourge that caus'd the smart.

Poper Immortal Jove!

Let kings no more with gentle mercy sway,
Or bless a people willing to obey;
But crush the nations with an iron rod,

And every monarch be the scourge of God. Pope. 4. A whip for a top.

If they had a top, the scourge stick and leather strap should be left to their own making. Locke. To SCOURGE. v. a. [from the noun.] 1. To lash with a whip; to whip.

The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices Make instruments to scourge us. Sbakspeare. Is it lawful for you to scourge a Roman? Acts. He scourg'd with many a stroke th' indignant

waves.

Milton.

Tobit.

He will scourge us for our iniquities, and will have mercy again. SCOʻURGER. n. s. [from scourge.] One that scourges; a punisher or chastiser. To SCOURSE. v. a. To exchange one thing for another; to swap. Ainsworth. It seems a corruption of scorsa, Italian, exchange; and hence a horse scourser. SCOUT.n.s. [escout, Fr. from escouter; auscultare, Lat. to listen; scolta, Ital.] One who is sent privily to observe the motions of the enemy.

Are not the speedy scouts return'd again, That dogg'd the mighty army of the dauphin? Shakspeare.

As when a scout, Through dark and desert ways with peril gone All night, at last, by break of cheerful dawn, Obtains the brow of some high-climbing hill.

Milton.

scout,

So she, to shun his toils, her cares employ'd. Dryden.

Command a party out, With a strict charge not to engage, but scout. Dryden.

2. To ridicule; to sneer. This is a sense unauthorized, and vulgar.

To SCOWL. v. n. [reýlian, to squint, Sax. skeela sig, to look sour, Islandick.] To frown; to pout; to look angry, sour, or sullen.

Miso, her authority increased, came with score/ing eyes to deliver a slavering good-morrow to the two ladies.

Sidncy.

With bent louring brows, as she would threat,

The dusky clouds o'erspread Heav'n's cheerful face; the low'ring element Scoruls o'er the darken'd landscape snow or show'r. Milton.

Fly, fly, prophane fogs! far hence fly away, With your dull influence; it is for you To sit and scowl upon night's heavy brow. Crasha.

In rueful gaze

The cattle stand, and on the scowling heavens Cast a deploring eye. Thomsen. SCOWL.n.s. [from the verb.] Look of sullenness or discontent; gloom.

I've seen the morning's lovely ray Hover o'er the new-born day, With rosy wings so richly bright, As if he scorn'd to think of night; When a ruddy storm, whose scorul Made heaven's radiant face look foul, Call'd for an untimely night, To blot the newly-blossom'd light. Grashaw. SCO'WLINGLY.adv. [from scowl.] With a frowning and sullen look. TO SCRABBLE. v. n. [krabbelen, scraffelen, to scrape or scratch, Dutch.] To paw with the hands.

He feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate. 1 Samuel. SCRAGG. n. s. (scraghe, Dutch.] Any thing thin or lean. SCRA'GGED. adj. [This seems corrupted from cragged.] Rough; uneven; full of protuberances or asperities.

SCRA'GGEDNESS.)
SCRA'GGINESS.

Is there then any physical deformity in the fabrick of a human body, because our imagination can strip it of its muscles and skin, and shew us the scragged and knotty back-bone Bentley. [from scragged.] } 5. [from scragg).]

N.5.

1. Leanness; marcour. 2. Unevenness; roughness; ruggedness. SCRA'GGY. adj. [from scragg.] 1. Lean; marcid; thin.

Such a constitution is easily known, by the body being lean, warm, hairy, scraggy, and dry, without a disease. Arbuthnot.

2. [corrupted from craggy.] Rough; rugged; uneven.

From a scraggy rock, whose prominence Half overshades the ocean, hardy men, Fearless of rending winds and dashing waves, Cut sampire.

TO SCRAMBLE. v. n.

Philips.

[the same with

scrabble; scraffelen, Dutch.]

1. To catch at any thing eagerly and tumultuously with the hands; to catch with haste preventive of another; to contend tumultuously which shall catch any thing.

England now is left To tug and scramble, and to part by th' teeth The unow'd interest of proud swelling state. Sbakspeare.

Of other care they little reck'ning malte, Than how to scramble at the shearer's feast, And chove away the worthy bidden guest. Milt. It is not to be supposed, that, when such a tree was shaking, there would be no scrambling for the fruit. Stilling fleet. They must have scrambled with the wild beasts for crabs and nuts. Ray.

2. To climb by the help of the hands: as, he scrambled up that rock. SCRAMBLE. n. s. [from the verb.] 1. Eager contest for something, in which one endeavours to get it before another. As they were in the middle of their gambols, somebody threw a handful of apples among them, that set them presently together by the ears upon the scramble.

Because the desire of money is constantly almost every where the same, its vent varies very little, but as its greater scarcity enhances its price and increases the scramble.

Locke.

2. Act of climbing by the help of the hands. SCRAMBLER.n.s. [from scramble.] 1. One that scrambles.

All the little scramblers after fame fall upon him. Addison.

2. One that climbs by help of the hands. To SCRANCH. v. a. [schrantzer, Dutch.] To grind somewhat crackling between the teeth. The Scots retain it.

SCRA'NNEL, adj. [Of this word I know not the etymology, nor any other example.] Vile; worthless. Perhaps grating by the sound.

When they list, their lean and flashy songs Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw.

Milton.

Trencher esquires spend their time in hopring from one great man's table to another's, only to pick up scraps and intelligence. L'Estr.

Languagues are to be learned only by reading and talking, and not by scraps of authors got by heart.

Locke.

No rag, no scrap, of all the beau, or wit, That once so flutter'd, and that once so writ.

Pope. I can never have too many of your letters: I am angry at every scrap of paper lost. Pope. 2. Crumb; small particles of meat left at the table.

The contract you pretend with that base wretch, One bred of alms, and foster'd with cold dishes, With scraps o' th' court, is no contract. Shaks. The attendants puff a court up beyond her bounds, for their own scraps and advantage.

Bacon.

noise.

TO SCRAPE. v. n.

1. To make a harsh noise.

2. To play ill on a fiddle. 3. To make an awkward bow. 4. To SCRAPE Acquaintance.

Ainsaw. A low

phrase. To curry favour, or insinuate into one's familiarity: probably from the scrapes or bows of a flatterer.

SCRAPE.n.5. [skrap, Swedish.] 1. Difficulty; perplexity; distress. This is a low word.

2. The sound of the foot drawn over the floor.

3. A bow. SCRAPER. N. s. [from scrape.] 1. Instrument with which any thing is scraped.

Never clean your shoes on the scraper, but in the entry, and the scraper will last the longer. Swift. 2. A miser; a man intent on getting money; a scrape-penny.

Be thrifty, but not covetous; therefore give Thy need, thine honour, and thy friend his due: Never was scraper brave man. Get to live; Then live, and use it; else it is not true That thou hast gotten: surely, use alone Makes money not a contemptible stone. Herbert. 3. A vile fiddler.

Out! ye sempiternal scrapers. Cooley. Have wild boars or dolphins the least emotion at the most elaborate strains of your modern scrapers, all which have been tamed and humanized by ancient musicians? Arbutinet. SCRAT.n.s. [scritta, Saxon.] An hermaphrodite. Skinner. Junius.

Το SCRATCH. v. a. [kratzen, Dutch.] 1. To tear or mark with slight incisions ragged and uneven.

The lab'ring swain Scratch'd with a rake a furrow for his grain, And cover'd with his hand the shallow seed Dryden.

}

again. A sort of small sand-coloured stones, so hard as to scratch glass. 2. To tear with the nails.

Grew.

How can I tell but that his talons may Yet scratch my son, or rend his tender hand?

Fairy Queen.

Other mechanical helps Aretæus uses to procure sleep, particularly the scratching of the temples and the ears.

Arbuthnot.

Be mindful, when invention fails, To scratch your head, and bite your nails. Swift. 6. To write or draw awkwardly.

If any of their labourers can scratch out a pamphlet, they desire no wit, style, or argument. Swift.

SCRATCH.n.s. [from the verb.]

1. An incision ragged and shallow.

The coarse file cuts deep, and makes deep scratches in the work; and before you can take out those deep scratches with your finer cut files, those places where the risings were when your work was forged, may become dents to your hammer dents.

Moxon.

The smaller the particles of those substances are, the smaller will be the scratches, by which they continually fret and wear away the glass until it be polished; but be they never so small, they can wear away the glass no otherwise than by grating and scratching it, and breaking the protuberances; and therefore polish it no otherwise than by bringing its roughness to a very fine grain, so that the scratches and frettings of the surface become too small to be visible. Neruton.

2. Laceration with the nails.

These nails with scratches shall deform my breast, Lest by my look or colour be express'd The mark of aught high-born, or ever better

dress'd.

3. A slight wound.

Prior.

The valiant beast turning on her with open jaws, she gave him such a thrust through his breast, that all the lion could do was with his open paw to tear off the mantle and sleeve of Zelmane, with a little scratch rather than a wound.

Sidney. Heav'n forbid a shallow scratch should drive The prince of Wales from such a field as this.

Shakspeare.

SCRATCHER. n. s. [from scratch.] He that scratches.

SCRAWLER.n.s. [from scraqul.] A clumsy and inelegant writer.

SCRAY. n. s. [birundo marina.] A bird called a sea-swallow. Ainsw. Bailey. SCRE'ABLE. adj. [screabilis, Lat.] That which may be spit out.

TO SCREAK.

shriek, from

V. n.

Bailey. [properly creak, or skrige, Danish.] To make Bailey.

a shrilt or loud noise. To SCREAM. v. n. [hpeman, Saxon.] 1. To cry out shrilly, as in terrour or agony.

Soon a whirlwind rose around, And from afar he heard a screaming sound, As of a dame distress'd, who cry'd for aid, And fill'd with loud laments the secret shade. Dryden. The fearful matrons raise screaming cry, Old feeble men with fainter groans reply; A jarring sound results, and mingles in the sky. Dryden.

a

If chance a mouse creeps in her sight, Can finely counterfeit a fright; So sweetly screams, if it comes near her, She ravishes all hearts to hear her.

2. To cry shrilly."

Swift.

I heard the owl scream, and the crickets cry. Shakspeare. SCREAM. n. s. [from the verb.] A shrill, quick, loud cry of terrour or pain.

Our chimnies were blown down; and, as they

To SCREECH. v. n. [skrakia, to cry, Islandick.]

1. To cry out as in terrour or anguish.

Screeching is an appetite of expelling that which suddenly strikes the spirits.

Bacon.

2. To cry as a night owl: thence called a screechowl.

SCREECH.n.s. [from the verb.] 1. Cry of horrour and anguish. 2. Harsh horrid cry.

The birds obscene, that nightly flock'd to taste, With hollow screechs fled from the dire repast; And ravenous dogs, llur'd by scented blood, And starving wolves, ran howling to the wood.

Pope. SCREE'CHOWL. n. s. [screech and owl.] An owl that hoots in the night, and whose voice is supposed to betoken danger, misery, or death.

Deep night,

The time of night when Troy was set on fire, The time when screechouls cry, and bandogs Shakspeare.

howl.

Let him, that will a screechoul ay be call'd, Go into Troy, and say there, Hector's dead. Shakspeare.

By the screechowl's dismal note, By the black night-raven's throat, I charge thee, Hob.

Drayton.

Jupiter, though he had jogged the balance to weigh down Turnus, sent the screechowl to discourage him.

Dryden.

Sooner shall streechouls bask in sunny day, Than I forget my shepherd's wonted love. Gay. SCREEN. 1.5. [escran, French.]

1. Any thing that affords shelter or concealment.

Now near enough: your leavy screens throw down,

And show like those you are.

Shakspeare.

Some ambitious men seem as screens to princes in matters of danger and envy.

Bacon.

Our people, who transport themselves, are settled in those interjacent tracts, as a screen against the insults of the savages.

My juniors by a year,

Who wisely thought my age a screen,

Swift.

When death approach'd, to stand between; The screen remov'd, their hearts are trembling.

Swift.

2. Any thing used to exclude cold or light.

When there is a screen between the candle and the eye, yet the light passeth to the paper whereon one writeth.

Bacon.

the first half spit, from just under the turf of the best pasture-ground, mixed with one part of very mellow soil screened. Evelyn. SCREW. n. s. [scroeve, Dut. escrou, Fr.] One of the mechanical powers, which is defined a right cylinder cut into a furrowed spiral of this there are two kinds, the male and female; the former being cut convex, so that its threads rise outwards; but the latter channelled on its concave side, so as to receive the former. Quincy.

The screw is a kind of wedge, that is multiplied or continued by a helical revolution about a cylinder, receiving its motion not from any stroke, but from a vectis at one end of it.

No discourse can be, but they will try to turn the tide, and draw it all into their own channel; or they will screw in here and there some intimations of what they said or did.

Government of the Tongue. The rents of land in Ireland, since they have been so enormously raised and screwed up, may be computed to be about two millions. Swift. 5. To squeeze; to press. 6. To oppress by extortion.

Our country landlords, by unmeasurable screwing and racking their tenants, have already reduced the miserable people to a worse condition than the peasants in France.

Swift.