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scrawl

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Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.

scrawl¹

  • /skɹɔːl/ UK
  • /skɹoːl/ Australia, British, New Zealand
  • /skɹɔl/ US
  • /skɹɑl/ US
  • /skɹɒl/ Canada
  • /skɾɔl/ Scotland
  • /skɾɔːl/ Wales

Rhymes with -ɔːl

Where it comes from

Possibly from Middle English scraulen (“to spread out one's limbs; sprawl”), itself an alteration of spraulen (“to sprawl”) or craulen, crawlen (“to crawl”).

Alternatively, from scrall, a contraction of scrabble.

noun scrawls

  1. countable, uncountable Irregular, poor handwriting; especially, such writing that is illegible.

    Similar: chicken scratch

  2. countable, uncountable A hastily or carelessly written note etc.
  3. countable, uncountable Writing that lacks literary merit.
  4. countable, uncommon A broken branch of a tree.
  5. countable, uncommon, uncountable The young of the dog-crab.

verb scrawls · scrawling · scrawled

  1. transitive To write something hastily or illegibly. She scrawled the main points onto her notepad.
  2. intransitive To write in an irregular or illegible manner.
  3. intransitive To write unskilfully and inelegantly. c. 1710-1730, Jonathan Swift (probably), Sandys's Ghost Though with a golden pen you scrawl.

scrawl²

  • /skɹɔːl/ UK
  • /skɹoːl/ Australia, British, New Zealand
  • /skɹɔl/ US
  • /skɹɑl/ US
  • /skɹɒl/ Canada
  • /skɾɔl/ Scotland
  • /skɾɔːl/ Wales

Rhymes with -ɔːl

Where it comes from

From Middle English scraulen (“to crawl”), itself an alteration of crawlen (“to crawl”). More at crawl.

verb scrawls · scrawling · scrawled

  1. To creep; crawl; to move slowly, with difficulty, fearfully, or stealthily. we will scrape and scrawl, and catch and pull to us all that we may get

Translations

Every language

noun irregular handwriting

Españolgarrapateo
日本語落書き rakugaki
中文塗鴉 /涂鸦 túyā, 塗鴨 /涂鸭) túyā
Portuguêsgarrancho, rabisco
Françaisgriffonnage, gribouillage
DeutschGekritzel
Italianoscarabocchio, girigogolo, sgorbio, svolazzo
Русскийкара́кули karákuli, крокозя́бры krokozjábry

noun hastily or carelessly written note

Portuguêsgarrancho
Italianoscarabocchio

verb to write hastily or illegibly

Españolgarrapatear
Portuguêsrabiscar
Deutschkritzeln, krakeln, dahin schmieren
Italianoscarabocchiare
Русскийцара́пать carápatʹ, шкря́бать škrjábatʹ

verb to write in an irregular or illegible manner

Españolgarrapatear
Portuguêsrabiscar
Françaisgriffonner
Deutschkritzeln
Italianoscarabocchiare
Русскийцара́пать carápatʹ, шкря́бать škrjábatʹ

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Cite this
MLA

"scrawl." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/scrawl. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

scrawl. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/scrawl

Chicago

"scrawl." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/scrawl.

BibTeX
@misc{scrawl_2026,
  title = {scrawl},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/scrawl},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}