limit vs scratch

limit

noun
  • The first group of riders to depart in a handicap race. 

  • A restriction; a bound beyond which one may not go. 

  • The cone of a diagram through which any other cone of that same diagram can factor uniquely. 

  • A determining feature; a distinguishing characteristic. 

  • Fixed limit. 

  • The final, utmost, or furthest point; the border or edge. 

  • A person who is exasperating, intolerable, astounding, etc. 

  • A value to which a sequence converges. Equivalently, the common value of the upper limit and the lower limit of a sequence: if the upper and lower limits are different, then the sequence has no limit (i.e., does not converge). 

  • Any of several abstractions of this concept of limit. 

adj
  • Being a fixed limit game. 

verb
  • To restrict; not to allow to go beyond a certain bound, to set boundaries. 

  • To have a limit in a particular set. 

scratch

noun
  • The last riders to depart in a handicap race. 

  • An act of scratching the skin to alleviate an itch or irritation. 

  • Money. 

  • A feed, usually a mixture of a few common grains, given to chickens. 

  • A horse withdrawn from a race prior to the start. 

  • Minute, but tender and troublesome, excoriations, covered with scabs, upon the heels of horses which have been used where it is very wet or muddy. 

  • A scratch wig. 

  • A genre of Virgin Islander music, better known as fungi. 

  • A technical error of touching or surpassing the starting mark prior to the official start signal in the sporting events of long jump, discus, hammer throw, shot put, and similar. Originally the starting mark was a scratch on the ground but is now a board or precisely indicated mark. 

  • A starting line (originally and simply, a line scratched in the ground), as in boxing. 

  • Scrawled or illegible handwriting; chicken scratch. 

  • A disruption, mark or shallow cut on a surface made by scratching. 

  • A foul in pool, as where the cue ball is put into a pocket or jumps off the table. 

  • An injury. 

adj
  • Hastily assembled, arranged or constructed, from whatever materials are to hand, with little or no preparation 

  • For or consisting of preliminary or tentative, incomplete, etc. work. 

  • Relating to a scratchpad, a data structure or recording medium attached to a machine for testing or temporary use. 

  • (of a player) Of a standard high enough to play without a handicap, i.e. to compete without the benefit of a variation in scoring based on ability. 

verb
  • To rub a surface with a sharp object, especially by a living creature to remove itching with nails, claws, etc. 

  • to get such scratches 

  • To mark a surface with a sharp object, thereby leaving a scratch (noun). 

  • To produce a distinctive sound on a turntable by moving a vinyl record back and forth while manipulating the crossfader (see also scratching). 

  • To irritate someone's skin with one's unshaven beard when kissing. 

  • To rub the skin with rough material causing a sensation of irritation; to cause itching. 

  • To commit a foul in pool, as where the cue ball is put into a pocket or jumps off the table. 

  • To write or draw hastily or awkwardly; scrawl. 

  • To cross out, strike out, strike through some text on a page. 

  • To dig or excavate with the claws. 

  • To dig or scrape (a person's skin) with claws or fingernails in self-defense or with the intention to injure. 

  • To announce one's non-participation in a race or sports event part of a larger sports meeting that they were previously signed up for, usually in lieu of another event at the same meeting. 

  • Hence, to remove, ignore, or delete. 

How often have the words limit and scratch occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )