Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- In surgery, to scratch or make superficial incisions in: as, to
scarify the gums. - To stir up and prepare for sowing or planting by means of a scarifier: as, to
scarify the soil. - Figuratively, to harrow or rasp, as the feelings.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To scratch or cut the skin of; esp. (Med.), to make small incisions in, by means of a lancet or scarificator, so as to draw blood from the smaller vessels without opening a large vein.
- transitive verb (Agric.) To stir the surface soil of, as a field.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb To
scar . - verb
Denude , orlay waste to. - verb horticulture To remove
thatch (build-up of organic matter on the soil) from alawn , to de-thatch.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb break up
- verb scratch the surface of
- verb puncture and scar (the skin), as for purposes or tribal identification or rituals
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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I first learned about cassowaries when I was at the School for Field Studies SFS Center for Rainforest Studies in Fall of 1990 as a college student, and was fascinated that they're the only bird that can "scarify" certain rainforest seeds.
Archive 2008-07-01 WENDEE HOLTCAMP 2008
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I first learned about cassowaries when I was at the School for Field Studies SFS Center for Rainforest Studies in Fall of 1990 as a college student, and was fascinated that they're the only bird that can "scarify" certain rainforest seeds.
cassowaries and sharks WENDEE HOLTCAMP 2008
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Bledri ap Rhys had come to Saint Asaph intending mischief, threatening mischief, and the cost had fallen on his own head, but the echoes would spread outward like ripples from a stone flung into a pool, and scarify the lives of all here until murder was paid for.
His Disposition 2010
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I really do not understand how senator Hillary can say she is for the people when she is coming with this when the result is to save $ 30.00 per diver you have to scarify 3000, 0000 jobs.
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What struck me most, after this long passage of time, is what we deem “permissible” on the screen today: We can — with impunity — rape, skewer, torture, vilify, scarify, plunge fangs into carotid arteries, sodomize…women can reveal frontal nudity within a half-inch of genitalia; men can stand frontally nude with only a hand cupped over the thingy…but only frontal.
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It's one thing to poke fun at a badly rendered tattoo, but quite another to say that it is stupid to tattoo, pierce, or scarify your body.
Keeping it Reeled In: Hope or Delusion? BikeSnobNYC 2009
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Bill Clinton, similarly, knew the power of charm and was not, IIRC, one to try to scarify opponents verbally in public.
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They are poor, numerous, and pregnant; if they work, it is to little purpose; their religions span a simple spectrum from witchcraft to wrath, and their societies alternate between tyranny and chaos; they beat their wives, scarify their daughters, and occasionally eat their enemies; they have never read (if they can read) a book that was not holy, or heard a piece of music unrelated to copulation.
Dan Agin: Michelle Obama and the Poison of National Review 2008
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It is very dangerous to cut off or scarify enlarged uvulae while they and red and large, for inflammations and hemorrhages supervene; but one should try to reduce such swellings by some other means at this season.
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But blood is to be abstracted, especially the from the veins, which are the seat of the influx, if they be conspicuous; but if not, deeper and more numerous scarifications are to be made in the swellings; and whatever part you scarify, this is to be done with the sharpest and most slender instruments of iron.
On Ulcers 2007
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