"scratch the itch" meaning in English

See scratch the itch in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: scratch the itches [present, singular, third-person], scratch the itching [participle, present], scratch the itched [participle, past], scratch the itched [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb}} scratch the itch (third-person singular simple present scratch the itches, present participle scratch the itching, simple past and past participle scratch the itched)
  1. (idiomatic) Alternative form of scratch an itch. Tags: alt-of, alternative, idiomatic Alternative form of: scratch an itch
    Sense id: en-scratch_the_itch-en-verb-nsFYJF-B Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "scratch the itches",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "scratch the itching",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "scratch the itched",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "scratch the itched",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "scratch the itch (third-person singular simple present scratch the itches, present participle scratch the itching, simple past and past participle scratch the itched)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "alt_of": [
        {
          "word": "scratch an itch"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              36,
              52
            ]
          ],
          "text": "A nice shot of whiskey would really scratch the itch right about now.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Alternative form of scratch an itch."
      ],
      "id": "en-scratch_the_itch-en-verb-nsFYJF-B",
      "links": [
        [
          "scratch an itch",
          "scratch an itch#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) Alternative form of scratch an itch."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "alt-of",
        "alternative",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "scratch the itch"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "scratch the itches",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "scratch the itching",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "scratch the itched",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "scratch the itched",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "scratch the itch (third-person singular simple present scratch the itches, present participle scratch the itching, simple past and past participle scratch the itched)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "alt_of": [
        {
          "word": "scratch an itch"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "English verbs",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              36,
              52
            ]
          ],
          "text": "A nice shot of whiskey would really scratch the itch right about now.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Alternative form of scratch an itch."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "scratch an itch",
          "scratch an itch#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) Alternative form of scratch an itch."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "alt-of",
        "alternative",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "scratch the itch"
}

Download raw JSONL data for scratch the itch meaning in English (1.2kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-03-25 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-03-03 using wiktextract (05c257f and 9d9a410). 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.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.