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as in hoarse
harsh and dry in sound
her voice was scratchy from a cold
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of scratchy
Digital techniques could clean up the scratchy sound of great performances from the nineteen-twenties and thirties, putting record companies sometimes in competition with their own backlists.
—
David Denby, New Yorker, 20 July 2025
There’s lots of Alcantara and lovely leather throughout, but scratchy plastics could be felt low on the doors and under the dash.
—Matthew MacConnell, Forbes.com, 11 July 2025
His baritone voice is scratchy from doing double duty: working and partying.
—Essence, 10 July 2025
There were only a few students and their sound was still a bit squeaky and scratchy.
—Mará Rose Williams
july 6, Kansas City Star, 6 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for scratchy
David Denby, New Yorker, 20 July 2025
There’s lots of Alcantara and lovely leather throughout, but scratchy plastics could be felt low on the doors and under the dash.
—Matthew MacConnell, Forbes.com, 11 July 2025
His baritone voice is scratchy from doing double duty: working and partying.
—Essence, 10 July 2025
There were only a few students and their sound was still a bit squeaky and scratchy.
—Mará Rose Williams
july 6, Kansas City Star, 6 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for scratchy
Recent Examples of Synonyms for scratchy
Adjective
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Most of the surface is made up of a fine dust with jagged edges because it hasn’t been weathered by wind or water.—
Jeremy Bogaisky,
Forbes.com,
2 Sep. 2025
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Against all of this allegedly heady stuff, the score—by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross—intentionally jars us from encroaching drowsiness with chortling woodwinds and shardlike piano chords that are the aural equivalent of jagged Plexiglass off-cuts.—
Stephanie Zacharek,
Time,
29 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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Nina not being there contributed to one of the most irritating moments in this season so far, with Antonio smugly blowing a kiss into the camera for her and gloating about being in the top after her harsh critique last week.—
Roxana Hadadi,
Vulture,
29 Aug. 2025
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An irritating habit of his is to stop by and launch into long-winded stories about some mundane event in his present or past life or to pontificate about a current event.—
R. Eric Thomas,
Chicago Tribune,
25 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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Her voice was loud and hoarse, calling out comments or exhortations concerning the game.—
Rachel Cusk,
New Yorker,
24 Aug. 2025
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Joe Biden’s disastrous June 2024 debate performance, when the nation witnessed a hoarse and feeble president losing his train of thought and struggling to finish sentences, ended his re-election campaign.—
Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy,
USA Today,
8 July 2025
Adjective
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During Friday’s press conference in the Palazzo del Casino, the actors tangled with the film’s thorny topics, which deal not only with assault but also race relations in the academic world and the ideological divide between generations.—
Ryan Lattanzio,
IndieWire,
29 Aug. 2025
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The road narrowed, and dry grass and thorny scrub leaned over the dusty track, as two rhinos stepped quietly out of the undergrowth.—
Sarah Kingdom,
Forbes.com,
28 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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Landon was also famous for his double act with Victor French who played the gruff outdoor-living Isaiah Edwards in Little House.—
Caroline Reid,
Forbes.com,
31 Aug. 2025
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The new film from the husband-and-lesbian-wife duo Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke features Margaret Qualley playing gay (again) as the titular detective Honey, with Aubrey Plaza co-starring as a gruff cop who is the object of her affections.—
James Factora,
Them.,
21 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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Fifteen years of separation led them to grow even further apart, though, and a once-symbiotic relationship has evolved into something considerably more prickly.—
Christian Zilko,
IndieWire,
30 Aug. 2025
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Noah Baumbach’s painfully incisive portrait of a family divorce among a remarkably prickly family of Brooklyn intellectuals finds so many ways to showcase its characters’ most brittle sides.—
Joe Reid,
Vulture,
29 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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Carpenter is plainly a student of Parton’s, evoking her pinup styling (voluminous hair, big red lips), her persona (sharp with a knowing wink), and her voice, which is rich and husky and accompanied by a country lilt.—
Amanda Petrusich,
New Yorker,
2 Sep. 2025
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Mija the Yorkshire terrier lived in Florida with her owner, 33, who chose not to give his name, and his much-larger dogs, including a husky and Swiss shepherd.—
Rachael O'Connor,
MSNBC Newsweek,
2 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Scratchy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/scratchy. Accessed 8 Sep. 2025.
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