Definition

Verb (phrasal verb): - To manage to survive or get by with great difficulty, typically with very limited financial resources. It implies a bare-minimum existence, just meeting basic needs.

Usage

This phrasal verb is used to describe a situation where someone is barely managing to survive, especially financially. It often conveys a sense of struggle and making do with very little.

Examples

Advanced Usage

• The phrasal verb is often used in continuous tenses to describe an ongoing, difficult situation.
• It can be used reflexively (e.g., "scratch oneself along") though this is less common.
• It frequently appears with adverbial phrases indicating means or duration (e.g., "scratch along on a pension," "scratch along for years").

Variants and Related Words

• Scrape along: A very close synonym with identical meaning and usage.
• Scrape by: Another near-identical synonym, perhaps slightly more common.
• Get by: A more general synonym meaning to manage, but without the strong connotation of extreme difficulty inherent in "scratch along."

Synonyms

• Scrape by
• Get by
• Make ends meet
• Eke out an existence
• Survive

Related Phrasal Verbs

• Scratch out a living: To earn a very basic living with great effort.
  • They scratched out a living from the poor soil.
• Scrape together: To gather something, especially money, with difficulty.
  • We scraped together enough cash for the train tickets.

Related Idioms

• Live from hand to mouth: To spend money as soon as it is earned, with no savings for the future. This idiom is closely related in describing a precarious financial state.
  • For years, they lived from hand to mouth, just scratching along.

Verb

1. manage one's existence barely
   • I guess I can squeeze by on this lousy salary