scroll
Americannoun
-
scrolls
plural
-
a roll of parchment, paper, copper, or other material, especially one with writing on it.
a scroll containing the entire Old Testament.
-
something, especially an ornament, resembling a partly unrolled sheet of paper or having a spiral or coiled form.
-
a list, roll, roster, or schedule.
-
(in Japanese and Chinese art) a painting or text on silk or paper that is either displayed on a wall hanging scroll or held by the viewer hand scroll and is rolled up when not in use.
-
the curved head of a violin or other bowed instrument.
-
a note, message, or other piece of writing.
verb (used with object)
-
scrolls,
present (3rd person singular)
-
scrolled,
past participle, past
-
scrolling
present participle
-
to cut into a curved form with a narrow-bladed saw.
-
Computers. to move (text) up, down, or across a display screen, with new text appearing on the screen as old text disappears.
verb (used without object)
-
scrolls,
present (3rd person singular)
-
scrolled,
past participle, past
-
scrolling
present participle
noun
-
a roll of parchment, paper, etc, usually inscribed with writing
-
an ancient book in the form of a roll of parchment, papyrus, etc
-
-
a decorative carving or moulding resembling a scroll
-
( as modifier )
a scroll saw
-
( in combination )
scrollwork
-
verb
-
(tr) to saw into scrolls
-
to roll up like a scroll
-
computing to move (text) from right to left or up and down on a screen in order to view text that cannot be contained within a single display image
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
scrollsimple
-
scrollssimple
-
have scrolledperfect
-
has scrolledperfect
-
am scrollingprogressive
-
are scrollingprogressive
-
is scrollingprogressive
-
have been scrollingperfect progressive
-
has been scrollingperfect progressive
Past
-
scrolledsimple
-
had scrolledperfect
-
was scrollingprogressive
-
were scrollingprogressive
-
had been scrollingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of scroll
1350–1400; Middle English scrowle; blend of scrow, aphetic variant of escrow and rowle roll
Explanation
A rolled up piece of paper is a scroll. If you write a poem on a sheet of paper, roll it up, and tie it with a ribbon, you can call it a scroll. Before books existed, people wrote stories or important information on parchment or papyrus and rolled them into scrolls for easy storage and transport. Sometimes, a scroll would serve as a work of art, a decorated tale that would occasionally be unrolled and displayed. These days, when you scroll through something, you're probably reading it on a computer, moving down the screen.
Vocabulary lists containing scroll
Ancient Egypt - Introductory
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"Invictus"
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Ancient Egypt - Middle School and High School
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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.
See Examples For:
Only registered users can see personal data, scroll through security camera history or unlock doors using HomeView.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026
You scroll back through last night's messages, certain you said something wrong.
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026
Today, the surviving library consists of about 1,800 scrolls and scroll fragments held in collections in Italy, France and England.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 26, 2026
Take a scroll through Instagram and TikTok, and you’ll see fan edit-style videos of Ossoff at campaign rallies and in Senate hearings.
From Salon ● Sep. 20, 2026
Mama clucked her tongue and placed a firm grip on Ella's shoulders as they made their way toward the turbaned man with the floating scroll.
From "The Marvellers" by Dhonielle Clayton
Shalom, the Hebrew word for peace and wholeness, appears after a crisis in the Book of Numbers, and it is written with a break in its third letter in all Torah scrolls.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
Mygal scrolls through the Telegram app on her phone, checking channels that monitor the direction of drone attacks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 4, 2026
The effort to digitally recover writing from Herculaneum's scrolls has been advancing for years.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 26, 2026
Packard-Grams and Jesse Obert of the Archaeological Research Facility scanned the newly written scrolls to verify the amount of lead present.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 26, 2026
Strabo’s terse description of “a public walk and a place furnished with seats, and a large hall” can be interpreted to suggest some sort of ambulatory with alcoves to the side, containing the scrolls.
From "Circumference" by Nicholas Nicastro
Metallica’s always been more existential than topical, but haven’t we all scrolled our feeds recently and muttered - “Darkness imprisoning me / All that I see, absolute horror.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2026
When Maitri Sanghvi scrolled through TikTok, "Japan just kept popping up," she says.
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026
Out of curiosity, I scrolled through a few vertical videos on HBO Max to see what might pop up.
From Salon ● Aug. 27, 2026
For me, as I scrolled through them at night, as I thought about why I was so drawn to them, I realized: I am moved because they prove the thing I love is actually there.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026
Vanessa looked at her phone and scrolled through it.
From "The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora" by Pablo Cartaya
NEW YORK—We’ve spent the last decade scrolling on iPhones.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026
However, the results do not establish that scrolling directly causes the observed differences in cognitive performance.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 12, 2026
It’s the tech that’s powering its creepy glasses, its open-source coding model, and now its bid into the battle of personal agents that will basically turn the experience of scrolling online into a water slide.
From Slate ● Oct. 3, 2026
You open FoodNeverComes, pick from 22 cuisines and start scrolling.
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026
“Well, I’ve been keeping track of everything,” Kaisha said, scrolling down to something on her phone.
From "Anger Is a Gift" by Mark Oshiro
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.
