scratch along
Học thuậtThân thiện
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
- manage one's existence barely
- I guess I can squeeze by on this lousy salary