Scrawl
/skɹɔːl/ noun, verb
noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Irregular, poor handwriting; especially, such writing that is illegible. countable, uncountable
- 2 poor handwriting wordnet
- 3 A hastily or carelessly written note etc. countable, uncountable
- 4 Writing that lacks literary merit. countable, uncountable
- 5 A broken branch of a tree. countable, uncommon
Show 1 more definition
- 6 The young of the dog-crab. countable, uncommon, uncountable
Verb
- 1 To write something hastily or illegibly. transitive
"She scrawled the main points onto her notepad."
- 2 To creep; crawl; to move slowly, with difficulty, fearfully, or stealthily.
"we will scrape and scrawl, and catch and pull to us all that we may get"
- 3 write carelessly wordnet
- 4 To write in an irregular or illegible manner. intransitive
- 5 To write unskilfully and inelegantly. intransitive
"c. 1710-1730, Jonathan Swift (probably), Sandys's Ghost Though with a golden pen you scrawl."
Example
More examples"A terrible, almost illegible scrawl."
Etymology
Etymology 1
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.
Etymology 2
From Middle English scraulen (“to crawl”), itself an alteration of crawlen (“to crawl”). More at crawl.