scrawl
Americanverb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
noun
-
awkward, careless, or illegible handwriting.
-
something scrawled, as a letter or a note.
verb
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
scrawlsimple
-
scrawlssimple
-
have scrawledperfect
-
has scrawledperfect
-
am scrawlingprogressive
-
are scrawlingprogressive
-
is scrawlingprogressive
-
have been scrawlingperfect progressive
-
has been scrawlingperfect progressive
Past
-
scrawledsimple
-
had scrawledperfect
-
was scrawlingprogressive
-
were scrawlingprogressive
-
had been scrawlingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of scrawl
1605–15; perhaps to be identified with late Middle English scraule to sprawl, crawl (blend of sprawl and crawl 1 )
Explanation
To scrawl is to write in a quick, barely readable scribble. When you're signing a document, you might scrawl your name across the bottom. Doctors are well-known for the way they scrawl prescriptions on a pad, and you can refer to that chicken scratch handwriting itself as a scrawl. It's not easy to read someone's scrawl, which is careless and rushed. The origin of scrawl is (fittingly) unclear, although one guess connects it to the Middle English scrawlen, "spread out the limbs" or "sprawl."
Vocabulary lists containing scrawl
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
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When You Reach Me
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Bridge to Terabithia
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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.
As his farewell to collegiate belles-lettres, Walliser took over the high-brow Scrawl, had that suppressed when he tried to build up circulation with an article attacking marriage.
From Time Magazine Archive
PORKY'S Scrawl a bit of American Graffiti across the front door of Animal House and you have a rough idea of Porky's effect.
From Time Magazine Archive
Anselmo," "The Dead Lover," "A Scrawl," "The Home-going," some of his sonnets, and the noble verses beginning "A monument for the soldiers!
From A Guest at the Ludlow and Other Stories by Edgar Wilson
False Scrawl, untrue thou art, To feign those sighs that nowhere can be found; For half those praises came not from his heart Whose faith and love as yet was never found.
From Elizabethan Sonnet Cycles Phillis - Licia by Crow, Martha Foote
In the mean time I beg you to excuse this hasty Scrawl & believe me to be &c 1 See above, page 389. note.
From The Writings of Samuel Adams - Volume 2 by Cushing, Harry Alonzo
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.
