scratch together
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Gather or collect something with difficulty
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
tập hợp hoặc thu thập một thứ gì đó với khó khăn
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: scratch to assemble pieces
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
They had to scratch together enough money to pay the rent
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “scratch together” mean?
Gather or collect something with difficulty Literally: scratch to assemble pieces
Is “scratch together” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.