1. To hastily draw one or more lines through something, either to conceal it or indicate that it should be skipped, ignored, or canceled. Third step in the instructions was scratched out, so I figured I was supposed to skip it—what else was I supposed to think? My mother used to go through the books and magazines in our house and scratch the dirty words out with a ballpoint pen.

2. To eliminate or strike through someone's or something's name from a list. A noun or pronoun can be used between "scratch" and "off"; usually followed by "from" and the kind of list being mentioned. Well, that's another thing we can scratch out from our to-do list for our trip through Europe. I had to scratch him out from the list of players for Saturday's game when I found out he was failing in three subjects. I had to scratch Jenny out from the roster because she was late for the third time in a row.

3. To write or draw something hastily by hand. He quickly scratched out a phone number on a slip of paper and pushed it across the desk to me. I scratched out a crude sketch of the attacker while his face was fresh in my mind.