Friday, 7 June 2019

FROM SCRATCH

To do something from scratch is to do it without using or relying on anything that has been done previously.


 Examples:

 “Some people make their costumes from scratch, and others buy them.”

 “The site is one of two in the UK that make steel from scratch using a blast furnace.”


FROM SCRATCH


 “The study confirms what we’ve been hearing for years: Cooking from scratch and eating ‘real food’ is better and healthier.”

 Why scratch? According to the Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms, the scratch was the line or mark drawn to indicate the point from which competitors had to start a race, unless they had been awarded an advantage and were allowed to start ahead of this line. Thus, a competitor who started from scratch would start with no advantage.

 [1] “scratch” In Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms, edited by Ayto, John. Oxford University Press, 2009.

 Photo credit: UCL Engineering (Creative Commons)

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