scrawl
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English[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Etymology 1[edit]
Possibly from Middle English scraulen (“to spread out one's limbs; sprawl”), itself an alteration of spraulen (“to sprawl”) or craulen, crawlen (“to crawl”).
Alternatively, from scrall, a contraction of scrabble.
Noun[edit]
scrawl (countable and uncountable, plural scrawls)
- Irregular, possibly illegible handwriting.
- A hastily or carelessly written note etc.
- Writing that lacks literary merit.
- (countable, uncommon) A broken branch of a tree.
- (uncommon) The young of the dog-crab.
Translations[edit]
irregular handwriting
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hastily or carelessly written note
Verb[edit]
scrawl (third-person singular simple present scrawls, present participle scrawling, simple past and past participle scrawled)
- (transitive) To write something hastily or illegibly.
- She scrawled the main points onto her notepad
- (intransitive) To write in an irregular or illegible manner.
- (intransitive) To write unskilfully and inelegantly.
- c. 1710-1730, Jonathan Swift (probably), Sandys's Ghost
- Though with a golden pen you scrawl.
- c. 1710-1730, Jonathan Swift (probably), Sandys's Ghost
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
to write hastily or illegibly
|
to write in an irregular or illegible manner
|
Etymology 2[edit]
From Middle English scraulen (“to crawl”), itself an alteration of crawlen (“to crawl”). More at crawl.
Verb[edit]
scrawl (third-person singular simple present scrawls, present participle scrawling, simple past and past participle scrawled)
- To creep; crawl; (by extension) to swarm with crawling things
- November 9, 1550, Hugh Latimer, A Sermon preached at Stamford
- we will scrape and scrawl, and catch and pull to us all that we may get
- November 9, 1550, Hugh Latimer, A Sermon preached at Stamford
References[edit]
“scrawl”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
Anagrams[edit]
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