scrape through

phrasal verb

scraped through; scraping through; scrapes through

: to succeed at doing something but just barely

He didn't study for the exam and just scraped through.

Examples of scrape through in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

With his head in his hands, fingers scraping through the thick, unruly brown locks, and breath shuddering from the tight line of his lips. —Lizz Schumer, Peoplemag, 26 Mar. 2024

The Taegeuk Warriors scraped through to the Asian Cup semifinals, despite only winning one game in regulation time during the competition, before being upset by Jordan. —Sam Joseph, CNN, 21 Feb. 2024

On that occasion, the Official Charts Company notes, the Rolling Stones’ reissue of Goats Head Soup scraped through by just 800 chart units for an historic No. 1. —Lars Brandle, Billboard, 13 Feb. 2024

For the last year, Ethiopia has been scraping through the worst drought the country has seen in 50 years. —Foreign Affairs, 22 Mar. 2016

The horns were also slightly flattened, as they were probably used to scrape through thick layers of snow covering the ground in order to munch away at the green grasses required by its herbivore diet. —Sofia Quaglia, Discover Magazine, 1 Nov. 2023

Sean Nevin That was close, but the U.S. scrape through their group in second place. —NBC News, 1 Aug. 2023

And lampreys — the jawless fish that have been around, unchanged, for 360 million years — have round, suction-disk mouths and teeth on their tongues to scrape through skin and access blood. —Sofia Quaglia, Discover Magazine, 31 May 2023