scrawl
/skɹoːl/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.27 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
1
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Irregular, poor handwriting; especially, such writing that is illegible.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "She scrawled the main points onto her notepad."
- "c. 1710-1730, Jonathan Swift (probably), Sandys's Ghost Though with a golden pen you scrawl."
- "we will scrape and scrawl, and catch and pull to us all that we may get"
- "When I saw him scrawlen on the plain, My heart aw flacker'd for't, I was sae fain."
- "T'poor pig what had just scrawled through t'bottom o' t'cart,"
- "'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.'"
Etymology
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: scraulen
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /skɹoːl/
- British English: /skɹɔːl/