scrabble

What it means

1. intransitiveTo scrape or scratch powerfully with hands or claws.

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

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

   2 more examples

   […] 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.

   [1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC

   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.

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

2. transitiveTo gather hastily.

   1 more example

   “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.”

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

   Synonyms: scramble

3. intransitiveTo 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.

In a sentence

[…] 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.

[1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC

Where it comes from

1. Middle Dutchschrabbelen
2. Englishscrabble

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