to scratch or scrape, as with the claws or hands.
to grapple or struggle with or as if with the claws or hands.
to scrawl; scribble.
to scratch or dig frantically with the hands; claw (often followed byat ).
scrabbling at a locked door to escape the flames.
to jostle or struggle for possession of something; grab or collect something in a disorderly way; scramble.
a scratching or scraping, as with the claws or hands.
a scrawled or scribbled writing.
a disorderly struggle for possession of something; scramble.
After the fumble, there was a scrabble for the football.
(intr; often foll by about or at) to scrape (at) or grope (for), as with hands or claws
to struggle (with)
to struggle to gain possession, esp in a disorderly manner
to scribble
the act or an instance of scrabbling
a scribble
a disorderly struggle
1530–40; < Dutch schrabbelen to scratch, frequentative of schrabben to scrape
To scrabble is to grasp or grope. If you lose your footing while rock climbing, you'll scrabble around with your fingers for a ledge to hang onto. The verb scrabble means to scratch or grab with your hands, the way you might search for something in a dark room or clutch at something frantically as you drop it. Scrabble also describes an animal's movements, like the sound of a squirrel that scrabbles, or scurries, out of your garbage can. Scrabble is also the name of a board game that involves making words out of letter tiles. Scrabble comes from the Dutch schrabben, "to scratch."
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“It was louder and closer; it was no longer a single belligerent hum glinting with accents of brass; it had diversified into a rolling scrabble of anger, holiday high spirits and sports crowd roar.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 8, 2024
One visitor quipped "someone's been playing scrabble by the look of it".
From BBC ● Jan. 17, 2024
Don’t just rely on your phone’s memory; you might not be the one making the phone call and it saves time not to have to scrabble around.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 20, 2023
The policy spurs a scrabble for more hard currency.
From Reuters ● Aug. 3, 2023
I go downstairs and scrabble around in the kitchen drawer for the card that Detective Riley left.
From "The Girl on the Train" by Paula Hawkins
I will not walk on a beach with you, but I will play Scrabble.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 17, 2026
PAWTUCKET, R.I.—The maker of Candyland, Monopoly and Scrabble has a new board game on its hands.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 1, 2026
Robert, who describes himself with a smile as "massively dyslexic", explains he has only played the original Scrabble once before.
From BBC ● Apr. 13, 2024
A genial character wearing thick glasses and a backwards baseball cap, Tim explains he played Scrabble regularly throughout the pandemic.
From BBC ● Apr. 13, 2024
A Scrabble board was on the coffee table.
From "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer
At the novel’s outset, Ezra scrabbles through his world with honest hunger and understandable, if sometimes pedantic, disdain for those with more than him.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 7, 2023
Such scrums and scrabbles can be found around England on Shrove Tuesday, from Corfe Castle in Dorset to Alnwick in Northumberland via Ashbourne in Derbyshire and Atherstone in Warwickshire.
From BBC ● Feb. 24, 2020
So Pluto is doubly fitting for the doppelgänger who ascended from underground and scrabbles around on all fours.
From Slate ● Mar. 24, 2019
As his wife scrabbles with angry protesters and gripes about her compromised marriage, he is sequestered in the bathroom, represented only by a mordant song that his aide-de-camp sings on his behalf:
From The New Yorker ● May 9, 2016
She scrabbles across the floor and leaps onto Walter, licking his face and wagging so hard she topples backward.
From "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen
As she scrabbled for a laser pointer in her large handbag, her coloratura was comically on point, though she was inaudible in her middle range during the cabaletta.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2025
Some people tried to lock the beasts out as they scrabbled at the door.
From Washington Post ● May 26, 2021
He scrabbled with all four paws, found some purchase, and scarpered up the slope and away.
From Slate ● Jan. 30, 2021
"Doctors scrabbled to do the most urgent of surgeries, portering, scrubbing the floors, working with one or two remaining nursing staff. Matrons were washing linen," one doctor wrote by email.
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2020
His fingers scrabbled with the peanut shells on the bar top.
From "The Reader" by Traci Chee
Imagine combat choreographed by ants, swarms of elbows and legs scrabbling to emerge victorious.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 11, 2026
The second senior resignation in two days leaves Sir Keir scrabbling to shore up his position as prime minister following the resignation of his top adviser McSweeney on Sunday.
From BBC ● Feb. 9, 2026
Europe’s scrabbling together of funds to put into the pot is important here.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 30, 2025
When few other animals are out and about, wolverines are scrabbling up frozen slopes with their crampon-like claws and crunching through frozen bones of carrion dug out of snow.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 29, 2023
And he began scrabbling on the ground to retrieve the contents of his suitcase with every appearance of a man eager to be gone.
From "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling
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.
