用scraping the barrel表达“滥竽充数，勉强凑合”

to scrape the barrel 意思是在没有更好选择的情况下处于无奈只能滥竽充数，将就凑合。

• You chose Mark to represent us at the meeting? That‘s really scraping the barrel.
• A: What are you wearing to the wedding?
  B: The same dress as last time. I know I‘m scraping the barrel. I just can‘t afford anything new!

值得注意的是，如果某事被形容为 a barrel of laughs 那就意味着这件事很搞笑。这个短语常被用在否定句中。

• A: How was the meeting?
  B: Pretty bad. We found out they are cutting 10 jobs. Not exactly a barrel of laughs.