outscrape

English

Etymology

From out- +‎ scrape, or possibly continuing Middle English outscrapen (“to remove, erase”).

Verb

outscrape (third-person singular simple present outscrapes, present participle outscraping, simple past and past participle outscraped)

1. (intransitive, Scotland, obsolete) To escape
2. (transitive, rare) To scrape out
   • 1844, The Family of the Seisers: A Satirical Tale of the City of New York:

     The chairs were five degrees above Windsor, the carpet was ingrain, with huge circles, whose outlines were nearly outscraped, it having been stamped under foot for many years before Madam Tag had forced it to do a passive duty in her oracular chambers.

3. (transitive) To scrape better than; exceed or outdo in scraping
   • 1837, Mary Martha Sherwood, The history of Henry Milner, page 217:

     But there was neither harmony nor melody in their tones, for they belonged to the different stages and shows ; and if the musicians agreed in any thing, it seemed only in the efforts which they made to outscrape, outscreech, outblow and outdrum each other.

   • 1974, The Comparative and International Law Journal of Southern Africa:

     Separation has only led to forced mobility, traffic congestion, anti-human city centres with one concrete office tower outscraping the next, subsidized and shoddy public transport etc.

Anagrams

• outcapers, tourscape