See scrape the bottom of the barrel on Wiktionary
{
"etymology_text": "Derived from the historical practice in the early European history of storing food in barrels; when food supplies ran low, only what was on the very bottom of the barrel remained, and had to be removed by scraping. Oil in a barrel has different fractions with a different weight. The heavier fractions like asphaltum sink to the bottom of the barrel and can be difficult to scrape from the bottom.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "scrapes the bottom of the barrel",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "scraping the bottom of the barrel",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "scraped the bottom of the barrel",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "scraped the bottom of the barrel",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "*",
"head": "scrape the bottom of the barrel"
},
"expansion": "scrape the bottom of the barrel (third-person singular simple present scrapes the bottom of the barrel, present participle scraping the bottom of the barrel, simple past and past participle scraped the bottom of the barrel)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English predicates",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
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"parents": [],
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},
{
"kind": "other",
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},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with entries",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Finnish translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with German translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Luxembourgish translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Polish translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Russian translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "They must really have been scraping the bottom of the barrel if they couldn't find a better design than that.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "1961 October, “Motive Power Miscellany: Western Region”, in Trains Illustrated, page 635:",
"text": "The bottom of the barrel was scraped on August 22 when Shrewsbury had to produce Taunton\n2-6-0 No. 6312 to work the 8.10 p.m. from Paddington between Wolverhampton and Shrewsbury; the stranger was in trouble in the early hours of the next morning at Hollinswood, but managed to reach Shrewsbury.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2004, Ronald Carey, The War Above the Trees, Trafford Publishing, →ISBN, page 259:",
"text": "We have so few ships that are mission—ready, they are scraping the bottom of the barrel. We are to the point where three damaged ships are being stripped to make one flyable ship.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To settle for a poor option due to a lack or unavailability of anything more favorable."
],
"id": "en-scrape_the_bottom_of_the_barrel-en-verb-A1pt4DPY",
"links": [
[
"settle",
"settle"
],
[
"due to",
"due to"
],
[
"lack",
"lack"
],
[
"unavailability",
"unavailability"
],
[
"favorable",
"favorable"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic, informal) To settle for a poor option due to a lack or unavailability of anything more favorable."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "scrape the barrel"
}
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic",
"informal"
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "kaapia laarin pohjia"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "tyytyä rippeisiin"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "den letzten Rest zusammenkratzen"
},
{
"code": "lb",
"lang": "Luxembourgish",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "alles zesummekrazen"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "na bezrybiu i rak ryba"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "skresti po susekam",
"sense": "Translations",
"tags": [
"imperfective"
],
"word": "скрести по сусекам"
}
],
"wikipedia": [
"Maritime Museum (Stockholm)"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "en-au-scrape the bottom of the barrel.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/99/En-au-scrape_the_bottom_of_the_barrel.ogg/En-au-scrape_the_bottom_of_the_barrel.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/En-au-scrape_the_bottom_of_the_barrel.ogg"
}
],
"word": "scrape the bottom of the barrel"
}
{
"etymology_text": "Derived from the historical practice in the early European history of storing food in barrels; when food supplies ran low, only what was on the very bottom of the barrel remained, and had to be removed by scraping. Oil in a barrel has different fractions with a different weight. The heavier fractions like asphaltum sink to the bottom of the barrel and can be difficult to scrape from the bottom.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "scrapes the bottom of the barrel",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "scraping the bottom of the barrel",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "scraped the bottom of the barrel",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "scraped the bottom of the barrel",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "*",
"head": "scrape the bottom of the barrel"
},
"expansion": "scrape the bottom of the barrel (third-person singular simple present scrapes the bottom of the barrel, present participle scraping the bottom of the barrel, simple past and past participle scraped the bottom of the barrel)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English idioms",
"English informal terms",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English predicates",
"English terms with quotations",
"English terms with usage examples",
"English verbs",
"Entries with translation boxes",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries",
"Terms with Finnish translations",
"Terms with German translations",
"Terms with Luxembourgish translations",
"Terms with Polish translations",
"Terms with Russian translations",
"Translation table header lacks gloss"
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "They must really have been scraping the bottom of the barrel if they couldn't find a better design than that.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "1961 October, “Motive Power Miscellany: Western Region”, in Trains Illustrated, page 635:",
"text": "The bottom of the barrel was scraped on August 22 when Shrewsbury had to produce Taunton\n2-6-0 No. 6312 to work the 8.10 p.m. from Paddington between Wolverhampton and Shrewsbury; the stranger was in trouble in the early hours of the next morning at Hollinswood, but managed to reach Shrewsbury.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2004, Ronald Carey, The War Above the Trees, Trafford Publishing, →ISBN, page 259:",
"text": "We have so few ships that are mission—ready, they are scraping the bottom of the barrel. We are to the point where three damaged ships are being stripped to make one flyable ship.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To settle for a poor option due to a lack or unavailability of anything more favorable."
],
"links": [
[
"settle",
"settle"
],
[
"due to",
"due to"
],
[
"lack",
"lack"
],
[
"unavailability",
"unavailability"
],
[
"favorable",
"favorable"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic, informal) To settle for a poor option due to a lack or unavailability of anything more favorable."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "scrape the barrel"
}
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic",
"informal"
],
"wikipedia": [
"Maritime Museum (Stockholm)"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "en-au-scrape the bottom of the barrel.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/99/En-au-scrape_the_bottom_of_the_barrel.ogg/En-au-scrape_the_bottom_of_the_barrel.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/En-au-scrape_the_bottom_of_the_barrel.ogg"
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],
"translations": [
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "kaapia laarin pohjia"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "tyytyä rippeisiin"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "den letzten Rest zusammenkratzen"
},
{
"code": "lb",
"lang": "Luxembourgish",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "alles zesummekrazen"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "na bezrybiu i rak ryba"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "skresti po susekam",
"sense": "Translations",
"tags": [
"imperfective"
],
"word": "скрести по сусекам"
}
],
"word": "scrape the bottom of the barrel"
}
Download raw JSONL data for scrape the bottom of the barrel meaning in All languages combined (4.1kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-10-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (9f93753 and c1a3a36). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
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