The Collaborative International Dictionary
Scrabble \Scrab"ble\ (skr[a^]b"b'l), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Scrabbled; p. pr. & vb. n. Scrabbling.] [Freq. of scrape. Cf. Scramble, Scrawl, v. t.]
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To scrape, paw, or scratch with the hands; to proceed by clawing with the hands and feet; to scramble; as, to scrabble up a cliff or a tree.
Now after a while Little-faith came to himself, and getting up made shift to scrabble on his way.
--Bunyan. -
To make irregular, crooked, or unmeaning marks; to scribble; to scrawl.
David . . . scrabbled on the doors of the gate.
--1. Sam. xxi. 1
Wiktionary
n. A sound or motion that scrabbles. vb. (present participle of scrabble English)
Usage examples of "scrabbling".
His surprised outcry vanished echoless across the dunes as he rolled onto his back, scrabbling his blaster from its holster.
That was the part that had looked upon Manaroo, and had decided, despite all the rest of his scrabbling, callused nature, to twine his fate with hers.
Rocks and sand poured off his chest as his scrabbling efforts, feeble at first and then made stronger by sudden desperation, combined with hers to extract him from the remains of the subchamber.
With that many schemers and back-stabbers all in one place, including Jabba himself, it had always been a possibility, if not a probability, that sooner or later any of the henchmen would find himself on the run, scrabbling for survival.
Beneath those dark wings the other swarmlings moved-crawling on segmented bellies, scrabbling on meter-long spider legs, oozing along like the Blob, and with Steve McQueen nowhere in sight.
She would be scrabbling for safety atop his shell, while he burst from the cabin, scattering Takisians like ninepins, rescued Tach, and flew them triumphantly home.
I flung myself backward in terror, scrabbling for solid rock, and found myself clinging to a rough boulder that thrust out of the snow, empty air inches beyond my toes.
In the midst of our motley fleet, the waters boiled, boats and rafts tilting on end, passengers crying out and scrabbling for a hold.
An old man scrabbling for grubs was stung by bees until his heart stopped.
They were a poor, scared community scrabbling for survival and maybe a scrap of pride in a hostile city.
He looked thoughtfully at Isaac, who was scrabbling under the bed with his face on the floor.
It was where they had spent the hours of the previous day uselessly scrabbling for plans.
Below it, twisting and scrabbling weakly and emitting pathetic sounds, a mass of splintered exoskeleton and seeping tissue, its wings broken and buried beneath the crush of refuse, was the slake-moth.
Isaac and Yagharek were perched on its weapon arms, their legs scrabbling for purchase across its broad back.
The body vanished in a cloud of acrid smoke, arms and legs flailing, landing four paces away, suckered fingers scrabbling in the leaf mold.