scrape along

phrasal verb

scraped along; scraping along; scrapes along

: to live with barely enough money : to be able to buy only the things most needed

She's scraping along on just a few hundred dollars a month.

Examples of scrape along in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web When the two ships collided, the bow of YM Serenity scraped along the side of HL Eco and smashed through one of its huge liquid gas fuel tanks mounted at the rear of the vessel. —

Owen Bellwood / Jalopnik, Quartz, 1 Aug. 2024 The final look epitomised this, with a garment made from 350 sourced, cleaned, sanded, drilled, linked, and draped oyster shells and slowly shuffled down the runway, with the sound of shells clattering together and scraping along the concrete runway. —

Angela Law, refinery29.com, 15 May 2024 The powerful storm came within a few miles of landfall as the storm’s ring of destructive winds scraped along the southern portion of the island. —

Anumita Kaur, Washington Post, 4 July 2024 The members scraped along rock-bottom, but the most telling moment may have been this exchange between Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) and Daszak. —

Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 2 May 2024 The bus hit a semi and scraped along 75 feet of guardrail before rolling over on its side, police said. —

Staff Report, Chicago Tribune, 15 June 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'scrape along.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.