Scutch

Quick meaning: Scutch is a verb meaning To separate the woody fibre from (flax, hemp, etc.) by beating; to swingle.

Meaning

To separate the woody fibre from (flax, hemp, etc.) by beating; to swingle.

More Meanings

1. (uncountable) The woody fibre of flax or hemp; the refuse of scutched flax or hemp.
2. (countable) A bricklayer's small picklike tool with two cutting edges (or prongs) for dressing stone or cutting and trimming bricks.
3. A tuft or clump of grass.
4. (countable) A wooden implement shaped like a large knife used to separate the valuable fibres of flax or hemp by beating them and scraping from it the woody or coarse portions.
5. (obsolete, UK, Scotland, Northern England, dialect) To beat or whip; to drub.

Example Sentences

His prey was more often the over-scutched huswives, the threepenny whores with well-whipped backs, both from the beadle and their own hot-blooded clients.

the labourers went peacefully about their usual employments, some driving teams of ponderous horses at the plough, others burning scutch and brambles, the rubbish of field and forest.

2005, John Martin, Warren Leonard, David Stamp, and Richard Waldren, Principles of Field Crop Production (4th Edition), section 32.10 “Processing Fiber Flax”, the title of subsection 32.10.3 “Scutching”.

Word Forms

• scutches
• scutching
• scutched

Synonyms for scutch

Depending on context, synonyms include scutcher, swingle, scotch.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include flax, scud, sclaff, scramb, scrawm, swingle.

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