How To Use Scratching In A Sentence
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Ridiculous salaries and back-scratching seems to have been the order of the day.
The Sun
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Scratching doesn't have to be confined to just hip-hop tracks.
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The mutual back-scratching by which executive pay is currently set is ridiculous, and is an immense waste of the resources of public companies that ridiculously over-pay the back-scratchers ..
'Say on pay' moves full speed ahead
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It seemed that every bar, no matter how tiny, had wedged a trio of musicians into a corner - one singing, one playing guitar and another scratching out a raspy beat on the guiro, a hollow gourd played with a stick.
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It's almost hypnotic—the scratching of the pencil on the page.
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When journalists were scratching for stories, the Greens’ drug policy was all but a godsend.
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The book devotes 30 pages to cucurbits, from giant pumpkins through marrows, zucchinis and cucumbers to back-scratching loofahs.
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In fact, there is more scratching on this CD than on any I have heard in recent years.
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And I'll bet he doesn't sit around in an undershirt, scratching himself.
MR STARLIGHT
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The editor of the local paper says he's really scratching around for stories this week.
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A metal stylus was used for scratching characters onto a wax tablet.
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Chickens clucked about, scratching up dust into tiny dust devils with their claws.
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I tell you what though, brother,’ said Dennis, cocking his hat for the convenience of scratching his head, and looking gravely at Hugh, ‘it’s worthy of notice, as a proof of the amazing equalness and dignity of our law, that it don’t make no distinction between men and women.
Barnaby Rudge
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He was aware of grinning, slavering mouths, incomprehensible, whimpering sounds, and fingers scratching at the talc.
IN LOVE AND WAR
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I have seen a girl, perhaps not more than twenty, also lacking textbooks, exercise books, biros, seen her teach the A B C by scratching the letters in the dirt with a stick, while the sun beat down and the dust swirled.
Doris Lessing - Nobel Lecture
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Can you imagine a moggie carrying Sunday papers with all those supplements, or fetching letters without scratching them to shreds?
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Successive home defeats by Manchester United, Partizan Belgrade and Birmingham inside eight days left the 70-year-old down in the dumps and scratching his head.
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Cotton mittens will prevent the baby from scratching his own face.
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It might stop you from scratching the wrong itch.
The Sun
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But they had been receptive to the charge only after becoming convinced by every tale of backroom vote buying and back-scratching that he was not the idealist they had thought he was.
O: A Presidential Novel
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The tower rises to a height of 179 ft but despite the head-scratching of scientists, engineers and architects the tilt is still pronounced.
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Young people are scratching their heads and wondering what it all means.
Times, Sunday Times
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Lissie looked down at the poem she'd been scratching down.
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The pain that scratching causes soothes an itch—but only for a second.
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THE blokes had the blonde tennis player scratching her bottom.
The Sun
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The first study showed that birds with long bills spend proportionally more time scratching with their feet than do birds with short bills, presumably as compensation for the unwieldiness of long bills.
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I am always stubbing my toe, smashing my arms against walls, tripping over, scratching myself.
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You may be closer to the truth than any of us will ever know ... what with the corruption and back-scratching going on among and between many of our government officials and private-interest groups.
Taking Odds On A Western Wolf Hunt
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Once, I heard something scuffling inside one of the forbidden rooms, as if a cat or other animal was scratching their paws over the walls.
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Don't dignify his silly scratchings by calling it scholarship.
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As a comprehensive report on media lobbying by the Center for Public Integrity demonstrates, when it comes to mutual backscratching, the primates in the National Zoo have nothing over the networks and Congress.
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He went on marking things down on his clipboard, violently scratching a multitude of checks and notations onto the paper.
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The skin must be allowed to heal to reduce the irritation that causes the scratching.
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We are still scratching the surface of what will become possible once we are able to build much higher resolution holographic imaging systems.
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She reached to untangle the reins and free the horse, the bushes scratching at her arms, snagging the sleeves of her now-tattered dress.
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Place tissue paper between acetate sheets for storage, to prevent scratching.
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We were just scratching the surface of this conundrum when Soriano grooved a 3–2 fastball over the center of the plate.
In the Time of Bobby Cox
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Dad got really mad at me for scratching the car.
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There's a scratching noise and your voice is so faint.
Bomber
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His production, scratching, and cuts are more fitting with the sound of the album than most of the other beats on the project.
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Its huge feet and long legs kept up with her easily, its clawed hands were stretched out ready to grab her, scratching against the walls, making a spine shilling noise.
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Photography became the snapshot and photo album; newspapers became fuel for fanzines, and the vinyl record became a tool for scratching and sampling.
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There's a scratching noise and your voice is so faint.
Bomber
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If your composition involves scratching and sampling, all to the good.
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You're scratching for things to do outside of the actual working part of the day.
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The camera lens and flash are also covered by glass to prevent unnecessary scratching of the lens.
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She saw him park and then she scraped her key along the side of his car, scratching the paint.
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I have seen a girl – perhaps not more than 20, also lacking textbooks, exercise books, biros – teach the ABC by scratching the letters in the dirt with a stick, while the sun beat down and the dust swirled.
Doris lessing | a hunger for books « poetry dispatch & other notes from the underground
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Young people are invited to attend workshops and master classes in everything from graffiti art to hip-hop and urban dance to scratching and break dancing.
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a single chicken was scratching forlornly in the yard
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I don't imagine them scratching for similes or phrasing and rephrasing until each sentence sings.
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But left and right are reversed in an etching, which is made by scratching lines on a metal plate and using the plate to make a print.
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Then, driven by whatever strange spirit possesses them, they begin monitoring speed, distance and trajectory, scratching their findings into notebooks.
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If the fact that their kitten was scratching and meowing to come into my place is anything to go by, it's not pretty.
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We just manage to keep scratching along.
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He returned his hired vessel, removed beard, turban, and aba behind a tree, and headed for the Amelia, scratching absently at his jaw.
LORD OF THE SILENT
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The black family would let me come look at their particolored chickens—bantams, Dominickers—scratching around uncooped in their precisely raked dirt yard.
Dream State
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I rub on soothing calamine lotion, then don a cotton turtleneck to keep myself from scratching.
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I ran my hand underneath his surcingle, scratching away a trace of dried sweat.
Firehorse
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We've been scratching our heads for a solution to the problem.
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He came in swaggering, but, by George, he went out scratching!
Three Times and Out: A Canadian Boy's Experience in Germany
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They darted in between boxes, yowling, hissing and scratching.
Chicken Soup for the Soul: Thanks Dad
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Some can look forward to a comfortable life and a cosy, back-scratching club.
Times, Sunday Times
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Does this not in fact reflect a huge principal-agent problem with a lot of quid pro quo backscratching of CEOs of each other?
Paul Graham on the Distribution of Income, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
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Leicester are still scratching that itch.
Times, Sunday Times
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I kept on yelling, while scratching and clawing at something in my back.
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Your child will have less access to their skin, and damage from scratching or rubbing can be avoided.
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She works in collage and mixed media, carving, scratching and gluing the surface texture to create ‘visual dialogue.’
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Relieve discomfort by washing the area gently with warm soapy water, dabbing with soft toilet paper and not scratching.
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Of course, business is all about mutual backscratching, nothing wrong with that, but if I am right, I want to be a part of that network.
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If you get a scratching post or even better a cat condo that usually have both wood and wood covered with sisal and carpet, the likelihood that the cat would find a surface to use is very good.
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This is a real problem, albeit not one of recent vintage; mutual backscratching is especially endemic in academic book reviews.
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Many fans on Sunday were left scratching their heads at the fact that Hamilton could have qualified 10th on the grid at Silverstone a fortnight ago, and all but written off his title chances following his fourth place finish, only to storm back in Germany where he split the Red Bulls in qualifying before going on to take a brilliant victory.
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph
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I had the attention span of a punch-drunk goldfish with Alzheimer's and Bob was scratching his bonce and looking into his beer for inspiration.
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He has this irritating mannerism of constantly scratching his nose.
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Unhappy and unnerved she hears the scratching, growling and barking of battle going on outside.
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Yes, a dark-haired, humanly-dressed faerie was dragging the pen back and forth, scratching out words onto the paper.
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He is scratching his chin as he considers the question.
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He was aware of grinning, slavering mouths, incomprehensible, whimpering sounds, and fingers scratching at the talc.
IN LOVE AND WAR
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A few scrawny chickens were scratching around the yard.
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I tell you what though, brother, 'said Dennis, cocking his hat for the convenience of scratching his head, and looking gravely at Hugh,' it's worthy of notice, as a proof of the amazing equalness and dignity of our law, that it don't make no distinction between men and women.
Barnaby Rudge: a tale of the Riots of 'eighty
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I enjoy scratching, and it's something I do a lot of in my shows.
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It was a moment that had traders scratching their heads and wondering if they had missed something.
Times, Sunday Times
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While assassins approached the tent, Pompey began barking and scratching to warn his master, finally jumping on William's face to wake him.
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I rub on soothing calamine lotion, then don a cotton turtleneck to keep myself from scratching.
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Police were called after a resident heard scratching outside and spotted a figure crouching on the ground.
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The scratchboard, in gold or silver, is laminated with a shiny, metallic base that offers impressive details with minimum effort using any standard scratching tool.
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Many moments will have you seriously scratching your head.
Times, Sunday Times
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Only if you were born and brought up unbeknown to the world in the darkness of deepest Dalby Forest, scratching a living from the land would you be truly a non-person.
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Experts have been scratching their heads over the increase in teenage crime.
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You can find other examples of literary backscratching in the Backscratching in Our Time category.
2009 April 17 « One-Minute Book Reviews
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But that's merely the beginning of this ill-conceived, ill-timed and epically copy-cattish endeavor, from the cover - a clumsy, solipsistic shot of a woman in a WSJ paper dress (a strange and otherwise un-referenced homage to the 1960s) - to the head-scratching organizing principle of the TOC.
Adam Hanft: I.O.A. -- The Wall Street Journal Magazine is Irrelevant On Arrival
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This leads to scratching and sores, and these may enlarge and become what are called varicose ulcers, which are slow and difficult of healing.
The Home Medical Library, Volume II (of VI)
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Sedatives and tranquilizers also may help you stop scratching, but your doctor will want to monitor your use of these substances because they can be addictive.
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And with all attention directed towards the death-struggle just up the road, no one was paying the least heed to the big Kabuli badmash scratching himself furtively outside the Commander-in-Chief's funkhole.
Flashman And The Mountain Of Light
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Meanwhile, just as head-scratchingly, the same media that typically treat female politicians like little girls playing dress-up and subject politicians of color to racist screeds and reflexive dismissal were getting all hot and bothered imagining a Clinton-Obama race for the Oval Office ... and telling America that this wasn't only possible, it was the most probable outcome.
Jennifer L. Pozner: Super Tuesday Media Musings, Part I: Why Media Forced Edwards Out of the Race
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Moreover, their date cannot really be established, since the scratchings could have been made decades after the coins were minted.
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What makes a set of expensive scope rings so expensive? and please don't say because the prevent from scratching your scope fini | Field & Stream
What makes a set of expensive scope rings so expensive?
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This sudden reduction in wealth should leave more than a few folks scratching for cash and looking to sell property.
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If CEOs are really stealing money from shareholders (I'm assuming that's what you're implying when you say "quid pro quo backscratching of CEOs of each other"), then why do people continually invest in the stock market at such incredible rates?
Paul Graham on the Distribution of Income, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
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He wakes to find it is the sound of Larry, scratching his acned cheeks in his sleep.
SOMEWHERE EAST OF LIFE
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He was holding onto the thick leg of an armchair, but tiny, scratching hands were clawing at him, forcing him to loosen his grip more and more gradually.
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There was a sudden scratching sound and the hum of an amplifier from the speakers in the ceiling.
Death at 60,000 « Official Harry Harrison News Blog
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The film is presented in anamorphic widescreen and while the transfer itself is solid enough the print used as a source does carry some dirt and, in one very noticeable instance, some scratching.
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The Miracle can play "My Country 'Tis of Thee" on the kalimba, steel guitar and Moog, with a percussion track of rap-style scratching, and that would be enough to ensure popularity at any party.
The Miracle Of The Keys
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All in all, it makes me wonder what the organization is getting in return from their government backscratching - other than the short end of the stick.
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If you keep scratching away at that spot, you'll break the skin.
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He was aware of grinning, slavering mouths, incomprehensible, whimpering sounds, and fingers scratching at the talc.
IN LOVE AND WAR
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Just check out these features which will save you LOTS of drafting, calculating, head-scratching and searching (not to mention TIME and MONEY!): - GORE PATTERN LAYOUT - simplifies drawing the full-sized gore pattern!
WN.com - Business News
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Faint music came from another house beyond the trees; a carriage clopped past the distant gates; overhead a nightbird moaned dolefully; I could hear my own knees creaking as I crouched there, scratching the newly-healed bullet-wound in my backside and wondering what the deuce was wrong.
Isabelle
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Hm… if you look in his ears, do you see any redness, any sign he’s been scratching at them, any swelling, any kind of gunky build-up?
Umpire kitteh - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger?
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It's got scratching, it's got acoustic guitars.
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He was silent for a long time, scratching his cheek absently, chewing on his lower lip.
THE TEACHER
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One of the most famous ghost sightings was by a six-year-old girl woken by scratching noises.
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Tad sighed as Aubri went through the whole of his dry, impish, "absentminded" routine, first scratching his rusty-brown headfeathers meditatively (which made more dustmotes dance into the light), then staring up at the ceiling of the dwelling he shared with Judeth.
The Silver Gryphon
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It sounded like a clank of metal and some scratching.
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Scratching a living out of the frozen north, while living in a house made out of snow - that's pretty damn impressive.
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I suppose that, at the beginning of this chapter, one had the notion that, by hard scratching through musty old records we might rake up vague, more than doubtful data, distortable into what's called evidence of unrecognized worlds or constructions of planetary size --
The Book of the Damned
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Excessive scratching can cause a bacterial infection such as impetigo, which may make symptoms worse.
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I'm chopping up and scratching more - it's like I'm a new DJ again.
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Birds keep their plumage in good condition using a variety of main and subsidiary maintenance behaviors, including preening, scratching, bathing, dusting, sunning, anting, shaking, and ruffling of the feathers.
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Official figures for business investment after the crisis no longer look quite as bad as the readings that had the government's budget watchdog scratching its head.
Times, Sunday Times
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To read more examples of backscratching by authors, click here.
2009 October 09 « One-Minute Book Reviews
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Clueless old men in the government, scratching their scurfy scalps, going, ‘Huh-yup, dat's what dem foreigner's'll like’.
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There is about the scene a feeling of deep rural repose: the occasional buzz of a hornet, the halfhearted peck of an odd stray hen scratching amid the clumps of cowitch begonia, perhaps the soft flip-and-splash of a hooked perch in some nearby fern-banked pond, or a supperbound catfish in one of the creeks.
I Tina
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At the side of the house stood a barn, and a coop full of chickens scratching at the dry cracked earth.
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‘No,’ said I scratching my shoulder and looking over at Poppy, my most excellent beagle, who was trying to catch a bumble bee.
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Scratching is as natural to cats as breathing.
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What always leaves me scratching my head about uber-rich philanthropists is why so many of their activities are so depoliticized.
Matthew Yglesias » Bill Gates, Coca-Cola, and Third World Farmers
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Jamali also paints on cork, mixing pigments and scratching imagery onto the surface with sticks and his fingernails.
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The traditionalists of the discontinuant left keep scratching the same old sores.
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If all that scratching leads to an infection, you may need an antibiotic.
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From nowhere, she started scratching out a reasonable living.
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At times and in places, peasants were scratching the dismal surfaces with the sort of plows which Abel must have used, when subsoiling was not yet even a dream; and between the plowmen and their ox-teams it seemed a question as to which should loiter longest in the unfinished furrow.
Familiar Spanish Travels
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Apparently her blackthorn and her holly, her roses and her honeysuckle were scratching the barouche as he drove past.
SANDS OF TIME
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The Tory leader had a go at scratching and mixing on record decks when he visited the Fusion Project to talk to young people.
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The King took the paper and began reading it, scratching his bearded chin.
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I looked at a few hens scratching in the grit at the hut's door.
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You may say that, Sheriff, quoth Tom, and then lingering a moment for ConstableMy certy, he added, scratching his head, and I think it will be a grand season for our buiks too.
Paras. 50-73
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Pauline began to weep now, a dry sound like the scratching of a spent record on a phonograph.
THE LAST REPORT ON THE MIRACLES AT LITTLE NO HORSE: A NOVEL
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The spaniel crouched by the door whining and scratching, and as Kerry came up it raised its beady black eyes to him with a look which, while it was not unfearful, held an unmistakable appeal.
Dope
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From this character, from the length of its legs, scratching feet, membranous covering to the nostrils, short and arched wings, this bird seems in a certain degree to connect the thrushes with the gallinaceous order.
Journal of researches into the geology and natural history of the various countries visited by H.M.S. Beagle
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Even their own publicity department was scratching for things to say.
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For Socrates, the appetitive hedonist is a blissfully ignorant Sisyphus forever doomed to the cruel pleasure of scratching a persistent itch.
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As you can see in the picture below, a deliberate attempt to damage the mousing surface by scratching it with a key caused very little damage.
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Either it's an instant hit with playgoers or it leaves them scratching their head during intermission.
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The maenad lived in the woods and was responsible for scratching the heck out of Sookie.
Questions About Season 2 True Blood | myFiveBest
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With the growing popularity of body art - tattoos, piercings, skin scratching and so on - comes a new level of exhibitionism.
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Now it's six years later and he is scratching a living predicting sports results.
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If it's not unethical corporate moles and scratching through somebody else's rubbish, it's scratching through long columns of your own figures in the hope of an elusive clue.
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But I still think it remains a fair question: Would the not-unsubstantial investment in an MSR mission designed to ferry a cache of tiny surface scratchings to earthside labs be all that more efficient/cost-effective than sending along a team of trained geologists to manage the collection with a robust on-site laboratory available for immediate assessment of specimen value?
Mars Program Gets no Special Treament - NASA Watch
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I first got into scratching from watching the DMC competitions, decided I wanted to do competitions and forced myself to get better.
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But I'm scratching my head over how a show that's unpopular ratings-wise and critically would get picked up after a pair of airings.
Ask Matt: Homeland, The Middle, Raising Hope, Community
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Across the stage, his DJ works a pair of turntables, scratching over savory beats, his perfectly flat-brimmed cap bobbing in rhythm.
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Since it uses a reverse electroplating process, there's no abrasive action from bore scouring brushes and no possibility of scratching the lands and grooves.
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I observed that the septaria and larger masses of shale which the bed contains, bear, on roughly-polished surfaces, in the line of their larger axes, the mysterious groovings and scratchings of this period, -- marks which I have never yet known to fail in their chronological evidence.
The Cruise of the Betsey or, A Summer Ramble Among the Fossiliferous Deposits of the Hebrides. With Rambles of a Geologist or, Ten Thousand Miles Over the Fossiliferous Deposits of Scotland
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It really is quite remarkable the way in which those cute little white paws can convey such anger and indignation when they are scratching relentlessly on one's bedroom door.
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You can hear the scratching of the quill pen as Cromwell writes out one of his orders.
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The answer came as a breathy crepitation, like dried leaves scratching.
A PLAGUE OF ANGELS
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Dry, itchy can skin can become infected by constant scratching.
Times, Sunday Times
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Improvident tax cuts by state legislatures and faltering investment returns have left educational institutions, both public and private, scratching for every nickel and dime.
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Many cities were said to be turning into ghost towns, with some five to seven million people living precariously on the breadline, scratching out an existence from one day to the next.
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You may often see the Turkeys, Pheasants, Peacocks, and other birds of this Hen-family, scratching up the gravel; and you know, I daresay, that grain-eating birds have a little mill inside them called a gizzard, which grinds their food for them.
Twilight and Dawn Simple Talks on the Six Days of Creation
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It suddenly takes an aggressive post-rock turn with the addition of a ride cymbal, drums, and scratching noises until poignant melody lines appear, played by what sounds like strings paired with woodwinds.
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Common complaints revolve around cracking and scratching of the plastic over time.
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Official figures for business investment after the crisis no longer look quite as bad as the readings that had the government's budget watchdog scratching its head.
Times, Sunday Times
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Each time I sit still for a moment I get another thought and off I dash, back to the desk, to jot it down, then search through what's gone before to see how it fits, drawing lines and connectors, then scratching them out again.
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The band still had to deal with the problem of coming off the payroll and switching from playing large venues to rolling round the club circuit, scratching a living.
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If you keep scratching away at that spot, you'll break the skin.
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He is going to be in your face, pushing the norm, scratching for revenues, defying you to slap him down and shut him up.
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Who thought this sort of back-scratching nepotism would end when the comrades took over?
The Sun
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Withered beyond longevity, a tiny man in dwarf's overalls, deeply addicted to codeine and Valium, fears colored people; occasionally makes scratching protests on his old violin, which has become too large for him.
March 2004
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Scratching is actually the reason he started DJing in the first place.
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The forest is being rubbed out by special pleading, arm-twisting and back-scratching corruption.
Times, Sunday Times
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Today she seems to be sketching, her pencil scratching away at loops and lines.
Christianity Today
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Apparently her blackthorn and her holly, her roses and her honeysuckle were scratching the barouche as he drove past.
SANDS OF TIME
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She was hired straight from a government ministry, instead of working in the commercial sector with its backscratching culture.
In the Plex
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The researchers also examined the pleasurability of scratching the itches, which was higher for the ankle and back than for the forearm.
A Dip in the Pool Does an Aging Body Good
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"Yeah, " Brandon nodded, absently scratching his ear.
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I hope, however, that they are equally keen on maintaining the age-old tradition of literary backscratching.
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After scratching the hell out of one of my arms while I soaped him and rinsed him, he then went absolutely hog wild drying himself in a towel.
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The only things living were a sow, her piglets, and some hens scratching in the dirt.
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Fifty per cent of Madagascar's population earn less than one US dollar per year, scratching a living from the parched red earth or feeding themselves by fishing.
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I had to wear long sleeves to stop myself scratching.
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While the concept is a good one, Swift over-emphasizes breaks and scratching at the expense of vocals and harmonies.
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They rolled around on the floor, angrily scratching and slapping and clawing at each other.
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Scratching is easy for any DJ, using the large, five-inch scratch wheel.
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At the same time, the stylus began scratching furiously on the scrolling chart.
GRACE
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Scratching from the turntablist really gets you moving.
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He started snuffling in the grass and scratching at a few things.
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Long, scraggly blond hair, bad skin, worse teeth, scratching his arms like he's got the mange.
FATAL FLAW
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Taxpayers foot the bill for this mutual back-scratching.
Times, Sunday Times
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To prevent the finish from scratching, the tool caddy should be hand-washed in hot, soapy water and abrasive pads and cleansers should be avoided.
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They're not only using these books to fill space and time that might be used to better purpose, but they're also engaging in corporate backscratching.
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Commercial-grade laminate flooring was installed to reduce scratching from the wheelchair.
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It seemed to have been a bird scratching at her window.
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The high lord of filth paused to consider this, scratching at his stubbled chin with one yellow and split talon.
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Today she seems to be sketching, her pencil scratching away at loops and lines.
Christianity Today
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New research reveals that scratching causes the brain to release serotonin, which intensifies the itch sensation.
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She understands she's been an attractive target for journalists scratching for the next headline.
