scratch hardness: Meaning and Definition of

scratch' hard"ness

Pronunciation: [key]
  1. resistance of a material, as a stone or metal, to scratching by one of several other materials, the known hardnesses of which are assembled into a standard scale, as the Mohs' scale of minerals.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.