scrabble

present singular third person scrabbles · participle present scrabbling · participle past scrabbled · past scrabbled

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.

4. intransitiveTo scribble.

   David […] scrabbled on the doors of the gate.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Samuel 21:13

5. transitiveTo mark with irregular lines or letters; to scribble on.

   to scrabble paper

plural scrabbles

1. A scramble.

   a scrabble for dear life

1. A board game in which players draw letter tiles and take turns to make interlocking words like a crossword, scoring points according to the letters played and their positions on the board.

   At the tournament level I dabble / But my tiles show a meaningless babble / I filled up my ranks / With a few extra blanks / And got busted for cheating at Scrabble

   2012 August 18, Bill Kurtis, “Listener Limerick Challenge”, Wait Wait... Don’t Tell Me!, National Public Radio

   2 more examples

   So that's what's in the forbidden room! Scrabble! I want to laugh, shriek with laughter, fall off my chair. This was once the game of old women, old men, in the summers or in retirement villas, to be played when there was nothing good on television. Or of adolescents, once, long long ago. […] Now of course it's something different. Now it's forbidden, for us.

   1985, Margaret Atwood, “Birth Day”, in The Handmaid’s Tale, Toronto, Ont.: McClelland and Stewart, →ISBN, pages 148–149

   Start by asking students if they ever watch Wheel of Fortune, or play games like Hangman or Scrabble.® Ask whether they have ever noticed any patterns in the frequency with which letters appear.

   2000, Eric T. Olson, Tammy Perry Olson, Real-Life Math: Statistics, Walch Publishing,, →ISBN, page 56