score
UK /skɔː/ · US /skoɹ/ noun, verb, interjection
Forms scores scoring scored scorest scoredst scoreth
- noun The total number of goals, points, runs, etc. earned by a participant in a game. “The player with the highest score is the winner.”
- noun The number of points accrued by each of the participants in a game, expressed as a ratio or a series of numbers. “The score is 8-1 even though it's not even half-time!”
- noun The performance of an individual or group on an examination or test, expressed by a number, letter, or other symbol; a grade. “The test scores for this class were high.”
- noun Twenty (20).
- noun A distance of twenty yards, in ancient archery and gunnery.
- noun A weight of twenty pounds.
- noun A period of twenty years.
- noun (UK, slang) Twenty pounds sterling.
- verb (transitive) To cut a notch or a groove in a surface. “The baker scored the cake so that the servers would know where to slice it.”
- verb (intransitive) To record the tally of points for a game, a match, or an examination.
- verb (ambitransitive) To obtain something desired.
- verb To earn points in a game. “It is unusual for a team to score a hundred goals in one game.”
- verb To achieve academic credit on a test, quiz, homework, assignment, or course.
- verb (gambling) To win money by gambling.
- verb (slang) To acquire or gain. “I scored some drugs last night.”
- verb (US, crime, slang, of a police officer) To extract a bribe.
- interjection (US, slang) An acknowledgement of success.
Synonyms
prostitute's client groove notch keep tally come by shake down pull soundtrack earn obtain mark grade musical score account scotch grudge grievance sexual conquest hit rack up nock seduce make
Etymology
From Middle English score, skore, schore, from Old English scoru (“notch; tally; score”), from Old Norse skor, from Proto-Germanic *skurō (“incision; tear; rift”), which is related to *skeraną (“to cut”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“cut”). Cognate with Icelandic skora, Swedish skåra, Danish skår. Related to shear.
For the sense “twenty”: The mark on a tally made by drovers for every twenty beasts passing through a tollgate.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A notch or incision; especially, one that is made as a tally mark; hence, a mark, or line, made for the purpose of account.
- noun An account or reckoning; account of dues; bill; hence, indebtedness.
- verb To mark with lines, scratches, or notches; to cut notches or furrows in; to notch; to scratch; to furrow; as, to score timber for hewing; to score the back with a lash.
- verb Especially, to mark with significant lines or notches, for indicating or keeping account of something; as, to score a tally.
Etymology [AS. scor twenty, fr. sceran, scieran, to shear, cut, divice; or rather the kindred Icel. skor incision, twenty, akin to Dan. skure a notch, Sw. skåra. See Shear.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “score”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details