chicken scratch
Americannoun
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handwriting of words or symbols that is too messy or roughly drawn to be easily read.
They need precise specs for the remodeling, but these drawings and dimensions are just chicken scratch.
Milo left us a note, but can anyone figure out his chicken scratch?
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a scratchlike mark, often an element of illegible writing.
I had no idea these chicken-scratches were actually the artist’s signature.
That chicken scratch was accidentally made by a utility knife when she was scoring a piece of leather.
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supplemental, relatively inexpensive food for chickens, typically cracked corn and grains scattered on the ground for the chickens to scratch through as they eat it.
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Informal. something of minimal or deficient value, such as an amount of money that is far less than what would be considered reasonable.
It’s an exposé of those laboring under atrocious conditions for chicken scratch.
verb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
Etymology
Origin of chicken scratch
First recorded in 1860–65
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.
Typing, voice dictation technology or my usual chicken scratch would’ve done the job far faster.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 11, 2024
Yet he seemed especially excited about a few basic-looking pieces of Senate stationary, marked with a few lines of chicken scratch, hanging in a frame near the door.
From MSNBC ● Dec. 16, 2014
In the chicken scratch of a kindergartner is a single sentence: “No Sidekick Gets Left Behind.”
From New York Times ● Mar. 7, 2014
In other words, we’re not talking about the squiggly, jagged, obviously digital chicken scratch from the early Palm Pilot days.
From Time ● Jan. 12, 2012
Her writing’s gone from tiny, perfectly formed letters to chicken scratch.
From "Saints and Misfits" by S.K. Ali
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.
