scutch

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

• IPA^(key): /skʌt͡ʃ/

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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, 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.

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

From Irish.

scutch (plural scutches)

1. A tuft or clump of grass.