Scritched

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Rubbed or scraped lightly with the fingernails across a surface, often making a faint grating sound
2. Lightly scratched a surface or an itchy spot with fingers or claws, usually producing a thin rasping noise
3. Dragged something sharp or rough gently over a surface so as to leave a faint mark or scrape

Etymology: "Scritched" is the past tense and past participle of "scritch," which is simply a variant of "scratch." The verb has the same sense as its more familiar cousin, to rub or scrape a surface with something sharp or rough, and it shows the kind of spelling and sound variation that often happens with words borrowed into dialect speech. Where "scratch" has a hard, clipped ending, "scritch" keeps the sharper "sk" start and the hissing "ch" finish, giving the action a slightly more drawn-out, scraping quality. The past form follows the regular pattern of English verbs ending in "ch," so "scritch" becomes "scritched" by adding "-ed." Nothing in the form itself changes the meaning; it is the same act of scraping, now placed in the past.