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v. scrab·bled, scrab·bling, scrab·bles v.intr. 1. To scrape or grope about frenetically with the hands or paws: "They often scrabbled through kitchen drawers looking for coins to buy bread" (Steve Friedman). 2. To move or climb with scrambling, disorderly haste: scrabbled down the rocks to the water. 3. To struggle or work hard in a disorderly or desperate fashion: "For quite some time I scrabbled around, playing the piano at jazz bars, doing whatever ... journalism I could get" (Frank Conroy). 4. To write hastily or make disordered markings; scribble. v.tr. 1. To make or obtain by frenetic or desperate action: scrabble a living from soil depleted of nutrients. 2. a. To scrape or scratch (a surface): "Tubal got him a pointed rod / And scrabbled the earth for corn" (Rudyard Kipling). b. To move or arrange hastily with the hands: "The next flat tombstone was covered with leaves. I scrabbled the dust away" (Ray Bradbury). 3. To scribble or write down hastily: scrabbled the answer on a sheet of paper. n. 1. The act or an instance of scrabbling. 2. A scribble; a doodle. [Dutch schrabbelen, from Middle Dutch, frequentative of schrabben, to scrape; see sker-1 in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.] scrabbler n. scrabbly adj. |
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