scutch

From Middle English *scucchen, from Anglo-Norman escucher, from Vulgar Latin *excuticāre.

• IPA^(key): /skʌt͡ʃ/

  • Audio (Southern England)

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  Rhymes: -ʌtʃ

scutch (third-person singular simple present scutches, present participle scutching, simple past and past participle scutched)

1. (obsolete, UK, Scotland, Northern England, dialect) To beat or whip; to drub.
2. To separate the woody fibre from (flax, hemp, etc.) by beating; to swingle.
   • 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”.
   • 1976, Robert Nye, Falstaff:

     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.

• scutching sword

Scutch (or swingle) (sense 1)

scutch (countable and uncountable, plural scutches)

1. (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.

   Synonyms: scutcher, swingle

2. (uncountable) The woody fibre of flax or hemp; the refuse of scutched flax or hemp.
   • 1897, Vincent J. Leatherdale, A Lady of Wales:

     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.

3. (countable) A bricklayer's small picklike tool with two cutting edges (or prongs) for dressing stone or cutting and trimming bricks.

   Synonym: scotch

• scutch grass

From Irish.

scutch (plural scutches)

1. A tuft or clump of grass.