scutch

Meanings

Verb

• To beat or whip; to drub.
• To separate the woody fibre from (flax, hemp, etc.) by beating; to swingle.

Noun

• 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.
• The woody fibre of flax or hemp; the refuse of scutched flax or hemp.
• A bricklayer's small picklike tool with two cutting edges (or prongs) for dressing stone or cutting and trimming bricks.
• A tuft or clump of grass.

Origin

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