Scritching

Part of speech: verb, noun

Definitions

1. Making repeated scratching or scraping motions with fingernails or claws, especially to relieve an itch or show affection
2. Dragging fingernails or claws repeatedly across a surface with a light scratching sound and motion
3. Producing a scratching sensation or sound by repeatedly dragging nails or claws across skin or material

Etymology: "Scritch" is a variant of "scratch", and "scritching" is simply its form for ongoing action, the sound and motion of rubbing or scraping something with nails or claws. The pairing of "scritch" with "scratch" shows how a single root can split into two spellings that carry slightly different tones: "scratch" stays the standard word, while "scritch" has the sharper, more onomatopoeic ring of the scraping itself. The "-ing" ending is the ordinary English suffix that turns a verb into a participle or a noun, so "scritching" needs no special history of its own beyond that of "scritch". Its use as a noun refers to the act of scratching in this way, most familiar in phrases about giving an animal a good scritch.

Synonyms: scratching, scraping, clawing, scrabbling