scamble

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English

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

Pronunciation

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Verb

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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. [], London: [] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock [], and J[onathan] Robinson [], →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

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References

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Anagrams

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