to be in a (an awkward) scrape

  • 1scrape — [n] bad or embarrassing situation awkward situation, corner*, difficulty, dilemma, discomfiture, distress, embarrassment, fix*, hole*, jam*, mess*, pickle*, plight, predicament, tight spot*, trouble; concept 674 Ant. resolution, solution scrape… …

    New thesaurus

  • 2scrape — I n. awkward predicament fight to get into a scrape II v. 1) (D; tr.) to scrape off (to scrape paint off furniture) 2) (D; intr.) to scrape through ( to manage to get through ) (to scrape through a crisis) 3) (N; used with an adjective) (she… …

    Combinatory dictionary

  • 3scrape — {{11}}scrape (n.) mid 15c., a scraping instrument; late 15c., act of scraping or scratching, from SCRAPE (Cf. scrape) (v.). Meaning embarrassing or awkward predicament is recorded from 1709, as OED suggests, probably from the notion of being… …

    Etymology dictionary

  • 4scrape — v. & n. v. 1 tr. a move a hard or sharp edge across (a surface), esp. to make something smooth. b apply (a hard or sharp edge) in this way. 2 tr. (foll. by away, off, etc.) remove (a stain, projection, etc.) by scraping. 3 tr. a rub (a surface)… …

    Useful english dictionary

  • 5List of English words of Old Norse origin — This article is part of a series on: Old Norse Dialects …

    Wikipedia

  • 6hand tool — any tool or implement designed for manual operation. * * * Introduction  any of the implements used by craftsmen in manual operations, such as chopping, chiseling, sawing, filing, or forging. Complementary tools, often needed as auxiliaries to… …

    Universalium

  • 7Difficulty — (Roget s Thesaurus) < N PARAG:Difficulty >N GRP: N 1 Sgm: N 1 difficulty difficulty Sgm: N 1 hardness hardness &c. >Adj. Sgm: N 1 impracticability impracticability &c.(impossibility) 471 Sgm: N 1 tough work tough work hard work uphil …

    English dictionary for students

  • 8charadriiform — ▪ bird order Introduction    any member of the large group of birds (bird) that includes the sandpipers (sandpiper), plovers (plover), gulls (gull), auks (auk), and their relatives. These birds form an important and familiar segment of the… …

    Universalium

  • 9difficulty — I (New American Roget s College Thesaurus) That which is hard to overcome Nouns 1. difficulty, hardness, impracticability, hard work, uphill work, hurdle; hard task, Herculean task, large order, hard row to hoe; task of Sisyphus, Sisyphean labor; …

    English dictionary for students

  • 10gel-1 —     gel 1     English meaning: “to curl; round, *gland, growth, ball, fathom, arm”     Deutsche Übersetzung: “ballen, sich ballen; Gerundetes, Kugeliges” etc     Material: evidence for the unadjusted root form are seldom and partly very doubtful …

    Proto-Indo-European etymological dictionary