Rough and irritating to the touch, or making a rough scraping sound; rough in quality.
From 'scratch' (to scrape roughly) plus the suffix '-y.' The word developed to describe both tactile and auditory sensations involving rough, unpleasant qualities.
Scratchy is such a useful word that it applies to textures, sounds, and even voices—it's one of those rare words where you can feel the meaning just by saying it out loud.
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