scratched

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of scratch.

   She scratched a quick note onto the back of the receipt.

   The old table had been scratched by years of careless use.

   Note

   A regular past form: one spelling serves as the simple past (the cat scratched the door) and as the participle after have or be (it has been scratched). After be it can blur into the adjective for a marked surface. The lens was scratched can name an event or a state, and adding by someone makes it the verb. The striking-out meaning pairs with out: two names were scratched out.

2. 2
   adjective

   Produced by scratching, showing fine marks or grooves on a surface.

   The scratched lens distorted every photo the camera took.

   Antique dealers often prize a lightly scratched finish as proof of age.

   Similarscuffed, marked

   Oppositeunmarked, pristine, smooth

   Note

   Here the participle works as an adjective, describing the marked thing rather than the act of marking it. It already stands before a noun in Beaumont and Fletcher's The Maid's Tragedy (c. 1608–1611), spelled scratcht: "these scratcht limbs of mine have spoke my love and truth." It grades like other adjectives, as in more scratched and most scratched, so a surface can be lightly or badly scratched.

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