scrabbly

American  

[skrab-lee] / ˈskræb li /

adjective

scrabblier, scrabbliest

1. insignificantly small or sparse.

   scrabbly tufts of grass sprouting from the parched lawn.

2. scratchy; raspy.

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Etymology

Origin of scrabbly

First recorded in 1940–45; scrabble + -y ¹

Example Sentences

And yet, there Andrews stood this spring on a scrabbly hill near Starbuck, Wash., looking over his family’s dominion — a 9,700-acre farm and ranch at the edge of the Palouse prairie.

From Seattle Times • Oct. 28, 2019

Baehrel has concocted a canny fulfillment of a particular foodie fantasy: an eccentric hermit wrings strange masterpieces from the woods and his scrabbly back yard.

From The New Yorker • Aug. 22, 2016

Fair enough, I thought, recalling the scratchy, scrabbly, windblown descent several of us had skied the day before.

From New York Times • Apr. 3, 2014

A young man, with a nest of scrabbly wiring on his head and an old tire over his shoulder, might almost be modelling a piece of mad millinery.

From The Guardian • Jul. 10, 2012

I stepped into the woods, looked around, could not see the crow, but noticed a big stick nest in a scrabbly pine.

From "My Side of the Mountain" by Jean Craighead George