scrabble

verb

1. (intransitive)To scrape or scratch powerfully with hands or claws.

   “[…] there came no answer, except the echo of my own voice sounding hollow and far off down in the vault. So in despair I turned back to the earth wall below the slab, and scrabbled at it with my fingers, till my nails were broken and the blood ran out; having all the while a sure knowledge, like a cord twisted round my head, that no effort of mine could ever dislodge the great stone.”

   “So he scraped and scratched and scrabbled and scrooged, then he scrooged again[.]”

   “The lane had not been designed for ponderous trucks. In the narrower parts we had to push our way along it between bushes and brambles which scrabbled along the sides as though they tried to pull us back.”

2. (transitive)To gather hastily.

   ““Oh. The perfect ending to the perfect-- [chuckles] I almost said evening. More like months, though, isn't it? Since we started scrabbling for coins because the damn government took away our-- every thing. They took everything. And the only thing that was left, you idiots either lost, gave away, ate, or just blew up and sank.””

3. (intransitive)To move with difficulty by making rapid movements back and forth with the hands or paws.

   “She was on her hands and knees scrabbling in the mud, looking for her missing wedding ring.”

4. (intransitive)To scribble.

   “David […] scrabbled on the doors of the gate.”

5. (transitive)To mark with irregular lines or letters; to scribble on.

   “to scrabble paper”

noun

1. A scramble.

   “a scrabble for dear life”

name

1. A board game in which players draw letter tiles and take turns to make interlocking words like a crossword, scoring points according to the letters played and their positions on the board.

   “So that's what's in the forbidden room! Scrabble! I want to laugh, shriek with laughter, fall off my chair. This was once the game of old women, old men, in the summers or in retirement villas, to be played when there was nothing good on television. Or of adolescents, once, long long ago. […] Now of course it's something different. Now it's forbidden, for us.”

   “Start by asking students if they ever watch Wheel of Fortune, or play games like Hangman or Scrabble.® Ask whether they have ever noticed any patterns in the frequency with which letters appear.”

   “At the tournament level I dabble / But my tiles show a meaningless babble / I filled up my ranks / With a few extra blanks / And got busted for cheating at Scrabble”