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Scratch (A)

.

One who in a race starts from the scratch, other runners in the same race being a yard or so in advance. The scratch runner generally is one who has already won a similar race.

Coming up to the scratch—up to the mark; about to do what we want him to do. In prize-fighting a line is scratched on the ground, and the toe of the fighter must come up to the scratch.

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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.