scraping up
Amassing with difficulty
Scraping up means gathering something with effort, often from scattered or meager sources.
You might scrape up enough money for rent by combining savings, borrowed cash, and loose change.
The image is of collecting material from a surface—scraping up crumbs, scraping up the last of the paint.
Figuratively, to scrape something up is to manage to assemble it despite difficulty: We scraped up enough volunteers to run the event.
- fragmentsIncomplete broken pieces
- scavengingGathering discarded or dead material
- shavingsThin strips removed
- cobblingFixing or making shoes
- making doUsing available resources adequately
debris · remnants · improvisation · reclaiming · salvaging · ingenuity · bare bones · last resort · residue · recovering · perseverance · struggle · dredging · effort · digging deep · combing · retrieving · picking up the pieces
scraping upabundance
Ample supply, overflowing
rolling in · surplus · bounty · plenty · glut
scraping upsquandering
Reckless depletion of resources
lavishing · splurging · throwing away · wasting · dispersing