scrabble

See also Scrabble

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -æbəl

Verb

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

1. To scrape or scratch powerfully with hands or claws.
   • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, Moonfleet Chapter 4

     Thus I lay for a long time, but afterwards stood up and cried aloud, and shrieked if anyone should haply hear me, calling to Mr. Glennie and Ratsey, and even Elzevir, by name, to save me from this awful place. But 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.

2. (intransitive) To move something about 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.

3. To scribble.

Derived terms

• hard scrabble
• scrabbler

Translations

to scrape or scratch powerfully

• Finnish: raapia (fi)

to do rapid back-and-forth movements with hands or paws

• Finnish: haroa (fi)

to scribble — see scribble

See also

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

Anagrams

• clabbers

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French

Noun

scrabble m (plural scrabbles)

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

Verb

scrabble

1. First- and third-person singular indicative present of scrabbler
2. First- and third-person singular subjunctive present of scrabbler
3. Ordinary second-person singular imperative present of scrabbler