Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One that scrapes, especially a tool for scraping off paint or other adherent matter such as ice on a windshield.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An instrument with which anything is scraped.
  • noun An apparatus drawn by oxen or horses, and used for scraping earth in making or repairing roads, digging cellars, canals, etc., and generally for raising and removing loosened soil, etc. In use the scraper is held with the handles slightly elevated till it scoops up its charge of earth, which is held by the sides and back. The handles are then pressed downward, which elevates the edge so that it no longer scrapes; the scraper being then drawn along, sliding on the bottom, to the place of discharge, the handles are suddenly and sharply raised, which engages the edge with the ground, and the draft then turns the scraper bottom-side upward, dumping the contents.
  • noun A large broad hoe used in cleaning roads, courtyards, cow-houses, etc.
  • noun An instrument having two or three sides or edges, for cleaning the decks, masts, or planking of ships, etc.
  • noun In engraving: A three-sided and fluted tool set in a wooden handle, used to remove the ridge or bur raised by the burin or dry-point from the sides of furrows cut into the surface of a copperplate. A three-sided tool with a lozenge-shaped point, used by wood-engravers to lower the edges in the light parts of a block in order to protect the edges in presswork.
  • noun In lithography, the angled edge in a press against which the protected sheet is drawn by a scraping movement, and which gives the required impression.
  • noun A marble-workers' tool for cutting flutes and channels.
  • noun A stucco-workers' shaping-tool.
  • noun A tool used by miners for removing the dust or so-called “bore-meal” from the drill-hole.
  • noun A wood-working tool with a straight or a curved blade and with one or two handles, used to remove address-marks from packing-boxes and in finishing fine woodwork.
  • noun A tool used by cabinet-makers in dressing off and smoothing veneers, etc.
  • noun A planing-machine in which the wood is forced against a stationary scraper or cutting-bar.
  • noun An implement of wood, with, a thin blade shaped like an ordinary knife-blade, used to scrape sweat from horses.
  • noun In iron-working, a tool used after the planer to give a true face.
  • noun A road-scraper.
  • noun Milit., an instrument for scraping powder from the bores of mortars and howitzers. It consists of a handle of iron, having a scraper at one end and a spoon for collecting dirt at the other, both made of steel.
  • noun A thumb-flint.
  • noun A small dredge or scoop used for taking oysters, scallops, etc., and also for cleaning off the beds. It is shaped something like a stout scythe, with a bag of iron ring-work on one side of the blade.
  • noun An instrument with which to clean the tongue by scraping off the fur.
  • noun One who scrapes.
  • noun A fiddler, as one who scrapes the strings.
  • noun plural The scratchers or gallinaceous birds of the old order Rasores.
  • noun A scraper for boiler-flues which turns on an axis as it is passed through the flue.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun An instrument with which anything is scraped.
  • noun An instrument by which the soles of shoes are cleaned from mud and the like, by drawing them across it.
  • noun An instrument drawn by oxen or horses, used for scraping up earth in making or repairing roads, digging cellars, canals etc.
  • noun (Naut.) An instrument having two or three sharp sides or edges, for cleaning the planks, masts, or decks of a ship.
  • noun (Lithography) In the printing press, a board, or blade, the edge of which is made to rub over the tympan sheet and thus produce the impression.
  • noun One who scrapes.
  • noun One who plays awkwardly on a violin.
  • noun One who acquires avariciously and saves penuriously.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An instrument with which anything is scraped.
  • noun An instrument by which the soles of shoes are cleaned from mud and the like, by drawing them across it.
  • noun An instrument drawn by oxen or horses, similar to a plow, that is used for scraping up earth in making or repairing roads, digging cellars, building canals, etc.
  • noun An instrument having two or three sharp sides or edges for cleaning the planks, masts, or decks of a ship.
  • noun In the printing press, a board or blade, the edge of which is made to rub over the tympan sheet, thus producing an impression.
  • noun One who scrapes.
  • noun One who plays awkwardly on a violin.
  • noun One who acquires avariciously and saves penuriously.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun any of various hand tools for scraping

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

to scrap + -er

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Examples

  • The true sky-scraper is beautiful — and this is the reluctant admission of a man who dislikes humanity-festering cities.

    The House Beautiful 2010

  • The true sky-scraper is beautiful, and it is beautiful in so far as it is true.

    The House Beautiful 2010

  • The true sky-scraper is beautiful — and this is the reluctant admission of a man who dislikes humanity-festering cities.

    The House Beautiful 1910

  • The true sky-scraper is beautiful, and it is beautiful in so far as it is true.

    The House Beautiful 1910

  • A scraper is a type of blog that takes content from other people’s site via feeds and uses it, sometimes within Fair Use and often not.

    Splogs on the Rise on Blogspot « Lorelle on WordPress 2005

  • There is a fine old Doric beauty, too, about the padlock and scraper, which is strictly in keeping with the general effect.

    Sketches by Boz 2007

  • There is a fine old Doric beauty, too, about the padlock and scraper, which is strictly in keeping with the general effect.

    Sketches by Boz, illustrative of everyday life and every-day people Charles Dickens 1841

  • There is a fine old Doric beauty, too, about the padlock and scraper, which is strictly in keeping with the general effect.

    Mudfog and Other Sketches Charles Dickens 1841

  • "Singing" insects, such as crickets, utter sounds called stridulations by rubbing the edge of one forewing called a scraper against a hard bumpy surface called a file on the opposite forewing.

    chron.com Chronicle 2011

  • A scraper is a better alternative to a snow shovel.

    The Fond du Lac Reporter Latest Headlines 2009

Comments

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  • A cocked hat. See chelengk for an interesting usage.

    February 15, 2008

  • I just found the following paragraph that includes a sense of "scrapping" not included in the above definitions. It is self explanatory: "Scraper sites, sites that copy content from other sites, have been a thorn in Google’s side for a while now. These sites use their lifted content to either rake in advertising dollars, or artificially increase their ranking on search engine results."

    August 28, 2011

  • A device with blades or brushes inserted in a pipeline for cleaning purposes. The pressure of the oil stream behind pushes the pig along the pipeline to clean out rust, wax, scale and debris. These devices are also called scrapers.

    June 28, 2015