scratch one's own itch
English
Etymology
From scratch an itch
Verb
scratch one's own itch (third-person singular simple present scratches one's own itch, present participle scratching one's own itch, simple past and past participle scratched one's own itch)
- (idiomatic) To do something out of motivation to solve a personal problem; to take matters into one's own hands.
- 1999, Eric S. Raymond, The Cathedral and the Bazaar, section 2:
- Every good work of software starts by scratching a developer's personal itch.
- 2013, The Escape Manifesto: Quit Your Corporate Job. Do Something Different!:
- The best advice for coming up with a business idea is "scratch your own itch". This is good advice for a variety of reasons. If you can think of a problem that you'd like a business to solve for you, the chances are other people share that problem.
- (idiomatic, euphemistic) to masturbate
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