The word scrape describes rubbing or dragging something roughly across a surface, usually making a harsh sound or removing a layer of material. When you scrape your knee falling off your bike, skin gets rubbed away painfully against the pavement. When you scrape ice off a car windshield on a winter morning, you're using a tool to remove the frozen layer.

The word captures both the action and the unpleasant feeling that can come with it. Fingernails scraping across a chalkboard create that teeth-grinding sound that makes everyone wince. A chair scraping across a wooden floor announces someone's movement with a loud screech.

You can also scrape food off a plate into the trash, or scrape the last bit of peanut butter from the bottom of a jar. In these cases, you're using something like a spoon or spatula to gather up what remains.

When someone barely succeeds at something, they might say they “scraped by.” If you scrape together enough money for something, you've gathered it from different sources with difficulty. And if you scrape through a challenging test, you passed, but just barely. A scrape can also mean a difficult situation or minor injury, like saying “I got into a scrape” when describing a problem you encountered.