Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SCORE, n. [Ir. scor, a notch; sgoram, to cut in pieces; Sax. scor, a score, twenty; Ice. skora, from the root of shear, share, shire.]

1. A notch or incision; hence, the number twenty. Our ancestors, before the knowledge of writing, numbered and kept accounts of numbers by cutting notches on a stick or tally, and making one notch the representative of twenty. A simple mark answered the same purpose.
2. A line drawn.
3. An account or reckoning; as, he paid his score. – Shak.
4. An account kept of something past; an epoch; an era. Tillotson.
5. Debt, or account of debt. – Shak.
6. Account; reason; motive. But left the trade, as many more / Have lately done on the same score. – Hudibras.
7. Account; sake. You act your kindness on Cydaria's score. Dryden.
8. In music, the original and entire draught of any composition, or its transcript. – Busby. To quit scores, to pay fully; to make even by giving an equivalent. A song in score, the words with the musical notes of a song annexed. – Johnson.