Idiom: scrape by

Meaning

Idiom: scrape by

To only have enough money or resources to survive
To manage with difficulty to pass a standard or achieve a result

Example sentences

Meaning 1: To only have enough money or resources to survive

— When I was a student I scraped by working part-time in the cafeteria.

— I'm not sure how I'm going to scrape by until my next paycheck. I may have to try to borrow money from my parents again.

— Don't worry we'll find a way to scrape by until our tax refund arrives.

— Why do you insist on scraping by as an artist when you could be making 6-figures working for your father's business?

— I'm so glad that I graduated from university and got a job. It was awful trying to scrape by eating peanut butter sandwiches for lunch and spaghetti for dinner most of the time.

— How did you scrape by after your divorce? I know your ex-husband still hasn't paid any alimony or child support.

Meaning 2: To manage with difficulty to pass a standard or achieve a result

— It’s a terrible score but at least I scraped by with a 70% on my calculus test.

— I know my son is partying all the time and just scraping by in college. My husband wants to cut him off financially but I'm afraid he'll just quit school completely.

— Did you manage to scrape by this semester or are there failing grades on your report card again?

— My sister passed her SAT and GMAT exams with high scores while I just scraped by.

— I'll never be fluent in English. After studying it for 8 years, I can still barely scrape by.

— We only just scraped by our sales quota last month. We need to do better this month.

— The team is just scraping by on the mandatory training. Please run a report to showing each employee's progress and if anyone has failed a module.

Synonyms

Meaning 1: To only have enough money or resources to survive

keep your head above water
live (from) hand to mouth
make ends meet
scrape a living
make do

Meaning 2: To manage with difficulty to pass a standard or achieve a result.

live to tell the tale
by the skin of one's teeth
by a nose
by the narrowest of margins
by a whisker

Idiom: scrape by

Meaning

Example sentences

Synonyms

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