Meaning

noun a slight surface cut (especially a notch that is made to keep a tally)

noun whiskey distilled in Scotland; especially whiskey made from malted barley in a pot still

verb hinder or prevent (the efforts, plans, or desires) of

originFrom Middle English scocchen (“to cut”), perhaps from Anglo-Norman escocher (“to notch”), from es- (“intensive prefix”) (from Latin ex-) + Old French coche (“notch”). Not related to Scotch.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0