scamble

English

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈskæmbəl/

Verb

scamble (third-person singular simple present scambles, present participle scambling, simple past and past participle scambled)

1. (intransitive) To move awkwardly; to be shuffling, irregular, or unsteady; to sprawl; to shamble.
   • 1662, Henry More, An Antidote Against Atheism, Book II, A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More, p. 61:

     "Or if you will say, that there may some scambling shift be made without them […] "

2. (intransitive) To move about pushing and jostling; to be rude and turbulent; to scramble; struggle for place or possession.
   • 1596, Shakespeare, King John, act IV scene III:

     How easy dost thou take all England up!
     From forth this morsel of dead royalty,
     The life, the right and truth of all this realm
     Is fled to heaven; and England now is left
     To tug and scamble and to part by the teeth
     The unowed interest of proud-swelling state.

3. (transitive) To mangle.
   • 1707, J[ohn] Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. […], 2nd edition, London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock […], and J[onathan] Robinson […], published 1708, →OCLC:

     finding my Wood cut in Patches , and other parts of it scambled and cut before it was at its Growth

4. (transitive) To squander.

Derived terms

• scambler

 

References

• “scamble”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• becalms, malbecs