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[skawr, skohr] /skɔr, skoʊr/

noun, plural scores, score for 11.
1.
the record of points or strokes made by the competitors in a game or match.
2.
the total points or strokes made by one side, individual, play, game, etc.
3.
an act or instance of making or earning a point or points.
4.
Education, Psychology. the performance of an individual or sometimes of a group on an examination or test, expressed by a number, letter, or other symbol.
5.
a notch, scratch, or incision; a stroke or line.
6.
a notch or mark for keeping an account or record.
7.
a reckoning or account so kept; tally.
8.
any account showing indebtedness.
9.
an amount recorded as due.
10.
a line drawn as a boundary, the starting point of a race, a goal line, etc.
11.
a group or set of 20:
about a score of years ago.
12.
scores, a great many:
Scores of people were at the dance.
13.
a reason, ground, or cause:
to complain on the score of low pay.
14.
Informal.

15.
Music.

16.
Slang.

verb (used with object), scored, scoring.
17.
to gain for addition to one’s score in a game or match.
18.
to make a score of:
He scored 98 on the test.
19.
to have as a specified value in points:
Four aces score 100.
20.
Education, Psychology. to evaluate the responses a person has made on (a test or an examination).
21.
Music.

22.
Cookery. to cut ridges or lines into (meat, fish, etc.) with shallow slashes, usually in a diamond pattern, before cooking.
23.
to make notches, cuts, marks, or lines in or on.
24.
to record or keep a record of (points, items, etc.), by or as if by notches, marks, etc.; tally; reckon (often followed by up).
25.
to write down as a debt.
26.
to record as a debtor.
27.
to gain, achieve, or win:
The play scored a great success.
28.
Slang.

29.
to berate or censure:
The newspapers scored the mayor severely for the announcement.
30.
to crease (paper or cardboard) so that it can be folded easily and without damage.
verb (used without object), scored, scoring.
31.
to make a point or points in a game or contest.
32.
to keep score, as of a game.
33.
to achieve an advantage or a success:
The new product scored with the public.
34.
to make notches, cuts, lines, etc.
35.
to run up a score or debt.
36.
Slang.

Idioms
37.
pay off / settle a score, to avenge a wrong; retaliate:
In the Old West they paid off a score with bullets.
/skɔː/
noun
1.
an evaluative, usually numerical, record of a competitive game or match
2.
the total number of points made by a side or individual in a game or match
3.
the act of scoring, esp a point or points
4.
(informal) the score, the actual situation; the true facts: to know the score
5.
(US & Canadian) the result of a test or exam
6.
a group or set of twenty: three score years and ten
7.
(usually pl) foll by of. a great number; lots: I have scores of things to do
8.
(music)

9.
a mark or notch, esp one made in keeping a tally
10.
an account of amounts due
11.
an amount recorded as due
12.
a reason or account: the book was rejected on the score of length
13.
a grievance
14.

15.
(informal) the victim of a theft or swindle
16.
(dancing) notation indicating a dancer’s moves
17.
(informal) over the score, excessive; unfair
18.
settle a score, pay off a score

verb
19.
to gain (a point or points) in a game or contest
20.
(transitive) to make a total score of: to score twelve
21.
to keep a record of the score (of)
22.
(transitive) to be worth (a certain amount) in a game
23.
(transitive) (US & Canadian) to evaluate (a test or exam) numerically; mark
24.
(transitive) to record by making notches in
25.
to make (cuts, lines, etc) in or on
26.
(intransitive) (slang) to obtain something desired, esp to purchase an illegal drug
27.
(intransitive) (slang) (of a man) to be successful in seducing a person
28.
(transitive)

29.
to achieve (success or an advantage): your idea really scored with the boss
30.
(transitive) (mainly US & Canadian) to criticize harshly; berate
31.
to accumulate or keep a record of (a debt)
v.

1921, from out (adv.) + score (v.). Related: Outscored; outscoring.
n.

late Old English scoru “twenty,” from Old Norse skor “mark, notch, incision; a rift in rock,” also, in Icelandic, “twenty,” from Proto-Germanic *skura-, from PIE root *(s)ker- “to cut” (see shear).

The connecting notion probably is counting large numbers (of sheep, etc.) with a notch in a stick for each 20. That way of counting, called vigesimalism, also exists in French: In Old French, “twenty” (vint) or a multiple of it could be used as a base, e.g. vint et doze (“32”), dous vinz et diz (“50”). Vigesimalism was or is a feature of Welsh, Irish, Gaelic and Breton (as well as non-IE Basque), and it is speculated that the English and the French picked it up from the Celts. Cf. tally (n.).

The prehistoric sense of the Germanic word, then, likely was “straight mark like a scratch, line drawn by a sharp instrument,” but in English this is attested only from c.1400, along with the sense “mark made (on a chalkboard, etc.) to keep count of a customer’s drinks in a tavern.” This sense was extended by 1670s to “mark made for purpose of recording a point in a game or match,” and thus “aggregate of points made by contestants in certain games and matches” (1742, originally in whist).

From the tavern-keeping sense comes the meaning “amount on an innkeeper’s bill” (c.1600) and thus the figurative verbal expression settle scores (1775). Meaning “printed piece of music” first recorded 1701, said to be from the practice of connecting related staves by scores of lines. Especially “music composed for a film” (1927). Meaning “act of obtaining narcotic drugs” is by 1951.

Scoreboard is from 1826; score-keeping- from 1905; newspaper sports section score line is from 1965; baseball score-card is from 1877.
v.

“to cut with incisions or notches,” c.1400; “to record by means of notches” (late 14c.); see score (n.). Meanings “to keep record of the scores in a game, etc.” and “to make or add a point for one’s side in a game, etc.” both attested from 1742. The slang sense, in reference to men, “achieve intercourse” first recorded 1960. Meaning “to be scorekeeper, to keep the score in a game or contest” is from 1846. In the musical sense from 1839. Related: Scored; scoring.

score (skôr)
n.
A result of a test or examination, usually expressed numerically.

noun

verb

Related Terms

even the score, make a score
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