scrabble

From Middle Dutch schrabbelen, frequentative of schrabben (“to scrape”), equivalent to scrab +‎ -le. More at scrape.

• IPA^(key): /ˈskɹæbəl/
• Rhymes: -æbəl

• Audio (US):

  (file)

scrabble (third-person singular simple present scrabbles, present participle scrabbling, simple past and past participle scrabbled)

1. (intransitive) To scrape or scratch powerfully with hands or claws.
   • [1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC:

     […] there came no answer, except the echo of my own voice sounding hollow and far off down in the vault. So in despair I turned back to the earth wall below the slab, and scrabbled at it with my fingers, till my nails were broken and the blood ran out; having all the while a sure knowledge, like a cord twisted round my head, that no effort of mine could ever dislodge the great stone.

   • 1908, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, London: Wordsworth Classics, published 1993, page 12:

     So he scraped and scratched and scrabbled and scrooged, then he scrooged again[.]

   • 1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1954, page 217:

     The lane had not been designed for ponderous trucks. In the narrower parts we had to push our way along it between bushes and brambles which scrabbled along the sides as though they tried to pull us back.

2. (transitive) To gather hastily.

   Synonym: scramble

   • 2014 March 24, Adam Reed, “On the Carpet” (19:15 from the start), in Archer‎^[1], season 5, episode 9, spoken by Malory Archer (Jessica Walter):

     “Oh. The perfect ending to the perfect-- [chuckles] I almost said evening. More like months, though, isn't it? Since we started scrabbling for coins because the damn government took away our-- every thing. They took everything. And the only thing that was left, you idiots either lost, gave away, ate, or just blew up and sank.”

3. (intransitive) To move with difficulty by making rapid movements back and forth with the hands or paws.

   She was on her hands and knees scrabbling in the mud, looking for her missing wedding ring.

4. (intransitive) To scribble.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Samuel 21:13:

     David […] scrabbled on the doors of the gate.

5. (transitive) To mark with irregular lines or letters; to scribble on.

   to scrabble paper

• hardscrabble
• scrabbler
• scrabbly
• scribble-scrabble

• scrab
• scramble
• scrap
• scrape
• scrapple (a sausage-like food)

scrabble (plural scrabbles)

1. A scramble.

   a scrabble for dear life

• clabbers, crabbles

scrabble m (plural scrabbles)

1. (Scrabble) a play where all seven tiles are used; a bingo

scrabble

1. inflection of scrabbler:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

• “scrabble”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Unadapted borrowing from English scrabble.

scrabble n (plural scrabble-uri)

1. scrabble