scroll
Americannoun
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a roll of parchment, paper, copper, or other material, especially one with writing on it.
a scroll containing the entire Old Testament.
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something, especially an ornament, resembling a partly unrolled sheet of paper or having a spiral or coiled form.
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a list, roll, roster, or schedule.
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(in Japanese and Chinese art) a painting or text on silk or paper that is either displayed on a wall hanging scroll or held by the viewer hand scroll and is rolled up when not in use.
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the curved head of a violin or other bowed instrument.
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a note, message, or other piece of writing.
verb (used with object)
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to cut into a curved form with a narrow-bladed saw.
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Computers. to move (text) up, down, or across a display screen, with new text appearing on the screen as old text disappears.
verb (used without object)
noun
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a roll of parchment, paper, etc, usually inscribed with writing
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an ancient book in the form of a roll of parchment, papyrus, etc
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a decorative carving or moulding resembling a scroll
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( as modifier )
a scroll saw
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( in combination )
scrollwork
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verb
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(tr) to saw into scrolls
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to roll up like a scroll
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computing to move (text) from right to left or up and down on a screen in order to view text that cannot be contained within a single display image
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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scrollsimple
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scrollssimple
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have scrolledperfect
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has scrolledperfect
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am scrollingprogressive
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are scrollingprogressive
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is scrollingprogressive
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have been scrollingperfect progressive
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has been scrollingperfect progressive
Past
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scrolledsimple
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had scrolledperfect
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was scrollingprogressive
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were scrollingprogressive
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had been scrollingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of scroll
1350–1400; Middle English scrowle; blend of scrow, aphetic variant of escrow and rowle roll
Explanation
A rolled up piece of paper is a scroll. If you write a poem on a sheet of paper, roll it up, and tie it with a ribbon, you can call it a scroll. Before books existed, people wrote stories or important information on parchment or papyrus and rolled them into scrolls for easy storage and transport. Sometimes, a scroll would serve as a work of art, a decorated tale that would occasionally be unrolled and displayed. These days, when you scroll through something, you're probably reading it on a computer, moving down the screen.
Vocabulary lists containing scroll
Ancient Egypt - Introductory
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"Invictus"
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Ancient Egypt - Middle School and High School
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
A list of the many Democrats he helped elect — among them Nancy Pelosi, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer — reads like a scroll of modern California history.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 26, 2026
The addictive features that the EU has concerns over include infinite scroll, autoplay, push notifications and highly personalised recommender systems.
From Barron's ● Jul. 14, 2026
Some consumers may be content to scroll through passable AI-generated prose while fighting off pop-up ads.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026
Play as Superman’s cousin, Kara Zor-El, while the game’s credits roll, zapping the names of developers with her laser vision as they scroll past to score extra points you can redeem in the SuperShop.
From Salon ● Jun. 27, 2026
He and Jamie did not normally sit in front of their Bloomberg screens and watch the news scroll by, but by Wednesday, the seventeenth, that’s what they were doing.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
"There's a million different ones. Different times of the day," says the 30-year-old as she scrolls through the alerts on her phone.
From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026
The old-school kind where everybody is mostly well-behaved and polite, and the audience scrolls on their phones to stay awake.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 15, 2026
On our Zoom call, Herberhold scrolls through the TikTok feed she uses as a shell account to study the Com network.
From Slate ● May 12, 2026
"It's the first time that he is wearing tefillin", Bandel said enthusiastically, referring to the small black leather boxes containing Torah scrolls.
From Barron's ● Apr. 9, 2026
Religions bring the sacred into our lives with Gothic churches, Muslim mosques, Hindu ashrams, Torah scrolls, Tibetan prayer wheels, priestly cassocks, candles, incense, Christmas trees, matzah balls, tombstones and icons.
From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari
But as I left Chapter One to check out the desmadre outside and scrolled through social media to see what was happening elsewhere, I felt a vibe I had never sensed among Mexican Americans.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 6, 2026
For me, as I scrolled through them at night, as I thought about why I was so drawn to them, I realized: I am moved because they prove the thing I love is actually there.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026
Her voice broke as she scrolled through dozens of photos and videos on her phone.
From Barron's ● May 22, 2026
Elliott checked and scrolled compulsively, bypassing the parental controls, sneaking down to grab his phone from the family charging unit in the kitchen at night.
From Slate ● May 12, 2026
He looked slowly around him, up to the balcony, with its scrolled and carved wood.
From "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
Catherine Garcia scanned her Lightning Lane pass at the entrance to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and immediately started scrolling to secure the next reservation at Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026
Features the government considers addictive such as auto-play videos and infinite scrolling will also be disabled under the plans, aimed at improving teenagers' focus, sleep quality and family life.
From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2026
The government also announced plans for a default setting that will disable addictive features like infinite scrolling for older teenagers.
From Barron's ● Jul. 14, 2026
You’re scrolling, looking for one person that’s like, “this guy stinks” and then you go, “that’s my day. This is what everyone thinks of me right now.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 7, 2026
I’d been scrolling around online for an hour looking for a dress for an event I had in a few weeks, and absolutely nothing looked right.
From "Proud" by Ibtihaj Muhammad
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
