scrabble

Verb

scrabble (third-person singular simple present scrabbles, present participle scrabbling, simple past and past participle scrabbled)

1. (intransitive) To scrape or scratch powerfully with hands or claws.
   • […] 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...[1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC
   • 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. (transitive) To gather hastily.
   • “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...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. (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.
4. (intransitive) To 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. (transitive) To mark with irregular lines or letters; to scribble on.
   • to scrabble paper

Noun

scrabble (plural scrabbles)

1. A scramble.
   • a scrabble for dear life

Proper noun capitalized: Scrabble

IPA/ˈskɹæ.bəl/

Scrabble

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.
   • 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...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