scrabbly
Americanadjective
-
insignificantly small or sparse.
scrabbly tufts of grass sprouting from the parched lawn.
-
scratchy; raspy.
Etymology
Origin of scrabbly
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.
While it is normal to contrast the vast plantations of the South with the scrabbly small farms of New England, the patroons of New York were also vast landowners.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026
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
Yesterday when Tla Flor was up with the boys, Mama was bemoaning that her rose bushes were so scrabbly and saying she wasn’t going to be seeing much of her favorite flowers this year.
From "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
