scrabble
Appearance
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle Dutch schrabbelen, frequentative of schrabben (“to scrape”), equivalent to scrab + -le. More at scrape.
Pronunciation
[edit]Verb
[edit]scrabble (third-person singular simple present scrabbles, present participle scrabbling, simple past and past participle scrabbled)
- (intransitive) To scrape or scratch powerfully with hands or claws.
- [1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC:
- […] 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.
- 1908, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, London: Wordsworth Classics, published 1993, page 12:
- So he scraped and scratched and scrabbled and scrooged, then he scrooged again[.]
- (transitive) To gather hastily.
- (intransitive) To 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.
- (intransitive) To scribble.
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Samuel 21:13:
- David […] scrabbled on the doors of the gate.
- (transitive) To mark with irregular lines or letters; to scribble on.
- to scrabble paper
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]to do rapid back-and-forth movements with hands or paws
to scribble — see scribble
See also
[edit]Noun
[edit]scrabble (plural scrabbles)
- A scramble.
- a scrabble for dear life
Anagrams
[edit]French
[edit]Noun
[edit]scrabble m (plural scrabbles)
Verb
[edit]scrabble
- inflection of scrabbler:
Further reading
[edit]- “scrabble”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Romanian
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Unadapted borrowing from English scrabble.
Noun
[edit]scrabble n (plural scrabble-uri)
Declension
[edit]singular | plural | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
indefinite | definite | indefinite | definite | ||
nominative-accusative | scrabble | scrabbleul | scrabble-uri | scrabble-urile | |
genitive-dative | scrabble | scrabbleului | scrabble-uri | scrabble-urilor | |
vocative | scrabbleule | scrabble-urilor |
Categories:
- English terms derived from Middle Dutch
- English terms suffixed with -le
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/æbəl
- Rhymes:English/æbəl/2 syllables
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English verbs
- English intransitive verbs
- English terms with quotations
- English transitive verbs
- English terms with usage examples
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- French lemmas
- French nouns
- French countable nouns
- French masculine nouns
- French non-lemma forms
- French verb forms
- Romanian terms borrowed from English
- Romanian unadapted borrowings from English
- Romanian terms derived from English
- Romanian lemmas
- Romanian nouns
- Romanian countable nouns
- Romanian neuter nouns