E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Scrape.
I’ve got into a sad scrape—a great difficulty. We use rub, squeeze, pinch, and scrape to express the same idea. Thus Shakespeare says, “Ay, there’s the rub” (difficulty); “I have got into tribulation” (a squeeze, from the Latin trib’ulo, to squeeze); “I am come to a pinch” (a difficulty). Some think the word a corrupt contraction of escapade, but Robert Chambers thinks it is borrowed from a term in golf. A rabbit’s burrow in Scotland, he says, is called a “scrape,” and if the ball gets into such a hole it can hardly be played. The rules of the game allow something to the player who “gets into a scrape.” (Book of Days.)
