Scrape an Acquaintance (To)

The Gentleman’s Magazine says that Hadrian went one day to the public baths, and saw an old soldier, well known to him, scraping himself with a potsherd for want of a flesh-brush. The emperor sent him a sum of money. Next day Hadrian found the bath crowded with soldiers scraping themselves with potsherds, and said, “Scrape on, gentlemen, but youʹll not scrape acquaintance with me.” (N. S., xxxix. 230.)

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.