scrawl
/skɹɔːl/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Australia/skɹoːl/
scrawl noun: irregular, poor handwriting; especially, such writing that is illegible.
Noun
scrawl (countable and uncountable, plural scrawls)
- Irregular, poor handwriting; especially, such writing that is illegible.
- Synonyms:
- chicken scratch
- A hastily or carelessly written note etc.
- Writing that lacks literary merit.
- A broken branch of a tree.
- The young of the dog-crab.
Verb (1)
scrawl (third-person singular simple present scrawls, present participle scrawling, simple past and past participle scrawled)
- To write something hastily or illegibly.
- She scrawled the main points onto her notepad.
- To write in an irregular or illegible manner.
- To write unskilfully and inelegantly.
- Though with a golden pen you scrawl.c. 1710-1730, Jonathan Swift (probably), Sandys's Ghost
Verb (2)
scrawl (third-person singular simple present scrawls, present participle scrawling, simple past and past participle scrawled)
- 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 getNovember 9, 1550, Hugh Latimer, A Sermon preached at Stamford
- When I saw him scrawlen on the plain, My heart aw flacker'd for't, I was sae fain.1797 (original possibly 1783), Josiah Relph, Poems by the Reverend Josiah Relph ... With the life of the author and a pastoral elegy on his death; by T. Sanderson, page 13
scrawl meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali and Malayalam
scrawl in Hindi
- to scrawl, scribble
- चीतना cītnā
scrawl in Tamil
- கிறுக்கல், கிறுக்கி எழுது
scrawl in Bengali
- অস্পষ্ট, হিজিবিজি করে লেখা
scrawl in Malayalam
- write hurriedly, scribble, write untidily
- കുത്തിവരയ്ക്കുക, കുത്തിക്കുറിക്കുക, പരണ്ടുക, അശ്രദ്ധമായി കുറിക്കുക, വൃത്തിയില്ലാതെ എഴുതുക, അശ്രദ്ധമായി എഴുതുക
- squiggles, scribble, hieroglyphics
- കുത്തിവര, കുത്തിവരപ്പ്, കുത്തിക്കുറിപ്പ്, കുത്തിക്കുറിക്കൽ, വൃത്തികെട്ട കെെയക്ഷരം, വായിക്കാൻ പ്രയാസമുള്ള എഴുത്ത്
More languagesFewer languages
- scrawl in Kannada
- ಕೋಳಿ ಕಾಲು ಬರಹ, ಕೋಚುಕೋಚಾಗಿ ಬರೆ, ಗೀಚು, ಗೀಚಿ ಹಾಕು
Examples of scrawl in a sentence
- T'poor pig what had just scrawled through t'bottom o' t'cart,1892, Clarke Tum Fowt Sketches, page 40, no. 3
- 'Cut its throat,' I calls to him, but he didn't, just slashes its forepaw; but it dropt di-rekly, couldn't hardly scrawl out on the bank.'1896, Francis Hindes Groome, Kriegspiel: The War Game, page 252:
Synonyms of scrawl
Forms of scrawl
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | scrawls |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | scrawls |
| present participle | scrawling |
| past participle | scrawled |
| past | scrawled |
Origin of scrawl
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.
From Middle English scraulen (“to crawl”), itself an alteration of crawlen (“to crawl”). More at crawl.
Words formed from scrawl
Words that rhyme with scrawl
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- pall
- paul
- recall
- tall
- Donegal
- saul
- forestall
- Saint Paul
- all
- appall
- hauler
- maul
- overcall
- overhaul
- withcall
- befall
- brawl
- drawl
- install
- set out one's stall
- sing small
- bawl
- orle
- spall
- sprawl
- squall
- trawl
- withal
- y'all
- acrawl
- awl
- infall
- moneyball
- overall
- pawl
- saule
- Senegal
- shawl
- spawl
- tell all
- yawl
- appal
- asprawl
- at all
- aul
- becrawl
- bescrawl
- besmall
Questions about scrawl
- What does scrawl mean?
- Scrawl means irregular, poor handwriting; especially, such writing that is illegible.
- What is scrawl in Hindi?
- Scrawl in Hindi is चीतना (cītnā). See Scrawl meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use scrawl in a sentence?
- T'poor pig what had just scrawled through t'bottom o' t'cart,
- What part of speech is scrawl?
- Scrawl can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce scrawl?
- Scrawl is pronounced /skɹɔːl/ (UK).
- What is the plural of scrawl?
- The plural of scrawl is scrawls.
Words near scrawl in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: scrawl (page history and authors); चीतना (Hindi) (page history and authors); scrawl (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); scrawl (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); scrawl (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); scrawl (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-scrawl.wav.
Cite this entry: “scrawl.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/scrawl. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.