no great scratch

English

Phrase

no great scratch

1. (archaic, slang) Not much good; something of little value or importance.
   • 1857, Samuel Griswold Goodrich, Peter Parley's Thousand and One Stories of Fact and Fancy, page 350:

     Among the spinners there was one, / Whose name was Samuel Patch; / He moped about, and did his stint / Folks thought him no great scratch.

   • 1921, Jessie Graham Flower, Grace Harlowe's Overland Riders in the Great North Woods, page 24:

     No great scratch whether there's anythin' to kick at or not, but they know better'n to kick me, though they ain't no love for Henry, and he gives them heels plenty of room, […]

   • 2001, John D. Wright, The Language of the Civil War, page 206:

     A private might say, "McClellan thinks he's something, but he's no great scratch."

References

• John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary