▪ I. scrawl, n.1
(skrɔːl)
Forms: 8 scrall, skrawl, skrale, 7– scrawl.
[f. scrawl v.2]
1. Something scrawled; a hastily and badly written letter, a careless sketch.
| 1693 Congreve Old Bach. v. vii, There, read. (Shows Letters.) That..That's a Scrawl of Quality. 1739 Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to C'tess Pomfret Jan. (1893) II. 37, I forget you are at Paris, and 'tis not polite to trouble you with such long scrawls as might perhaps be supportable at Monts. 1792 Scott Let. in Lockhart (1837) I. vii. 188 Taking the advantage..of my father's leaving this place, who will take charge of this scrawl, I sit down to answer your favour. 1840 Thackeray Paris Sk.-bk. (1867) 52 A scrawl from his pencil brings an enormous price. 1882 B. D. W. Ramsay Recoll. Mil. Serv. I. xi. 286 An hour or two had not elapsed before I received a scrawl in Sir Colin's own handwriting. |
† b. pl. Scrawled or illegible characters. Obs.
| 1728 Tickell Horn-bk. 34 So from the letters of our native tongue, Put in Greek scrawls, a mystery too is sprung. a 1767 Harte Vis. Death 264 In sable scrawls I Nero's name perus'd. 1807 Crabbe Par. Reg. ii. 290 Mark now in what confusion, stoop or stand, The crooked scrawls of many a clownish hand. |
2. A careless, illegible style of handwriting.
| 1710 Swift Jrnl. to Stella 3 Nov., A bad scrawl is so snug. 1775 F. Burney Early Diary, Let. Nov. (1889) II. 90 Her hand-writing..was a..miserable scrawl. 1865 Dickens Mut. Fr. i. xv, The scrawl of childish hands. |
▪ II. scrawl, n.2 dial.
(skrɔːl)
[Perh. f. scrawl v.1 But cf. OF. escrouelle river-shrimp.]
(See quot. 1847.)
| 1847 Halliwell, Scrawl, the young of the dog-crab, or a poor sort of crab itself. Linc. 1861 Tennyson Sailor Boy 12 And on thy ribs the limpet sticks, And in thy heart the scrawl shall play. |
▪ III. scrawl, v.1 Obs. exc. dial.
Forms: 4, 6–7 scrawle, 5–6 scraule, 6 scrale, skrall(e, skrawl, 6–7 scraul, scrall, 6–8, 9 (dial.) scrawl.
[App. an altered form of crawl v., perh. suggested by sprawl v. of cognate meaning.]
† 1. intr. To spread the limbs abroad in a sprawling manner; to gesticulate. Obs.
| c 1380 Wyclif Serm. ccxxx. Sel. Wks. II. 204 And þis spirit cryinge, made him scrawle [v.rr. spraule, scraule], or, al to-teerynge him, went oute from him. 1560 T. Phaer æneid ix. A a 2, As he there did pendant skralle; He pluckt him back by foarce. 1582 Stanyhurst æneis ii. (Arb.) 51 Hee freams, and skrawling to the skye brayes terribil hoyseth. |
2. To move with a scrambling and shuffling motion. = crawl v.1 1.
| 1530 Tindale Lev. xi. 41 All that scrauleth vpon the erth. 1573–80 Tusser Husb. (1878) 108 If gentils be scrauling, call magget the py. 1611 Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. ix. xxiv. §84. 1155 Not so few as one hundred and twentie of knowne Iesuites and Seminaries scrawled like Frogs, thorow her faire soyle. 1677 Coles Eng.-Lat. Dict., To scrall (stir); motito. 1719 D'Urfey Pills I. 127 He scrawling, she tugging, with hawling and lugging, Through Window at last he got in. 1851 Cumberland Gloss., Scrawling. 1892 C. A. Clarke Tum Fowt Sketches 40 (E.D.D.) T' poor pig what had just scrawled through t' bottom o' t' cart. |
† 3. transf. To teem. = crawl v.1 5. Obs.
| 1530 Tindale Exod. viii. 3 And the ryuer shall scrale with frogges. 1643 Lightfoot Glean. Ex. (1648) 14 The waters..scrawle with frogges. |
▪ IV. scrawl, v.2
(skrɔːl)
Also 7 scraul, scrall.
[Perh. a use of scrawl v.1, the development of sense being suggested by the coincidence of the initial cons.-group with that of scrabble, scribble, scroll.]
1. trans. To write or draw in a sprawling, untidy manner.
| 1612 [implied in scrawling vbl. n.]. 1629 Quarles Argalus & Parth. iii. Wks. (Grosart) III. 274 To whom poore Vulcan..Scrall'd many a thank. 1748 Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to C'tess Bute 26 July (1893) II. 169, I enclose to you a rough draft of it [my garden] drawn (or more properly scrawled) by my own hand. 1781 Cowper Truth 156 Who, where'er he came, Scrawl'd upon glass miss Bridget's lovely name. 1879 M{supc}Carthy Own Times xxvii. II. 304 The war correspondent now scrawls his despatches as he sits in his saddle under the fire of the enemy. 1887 Jessopp Arcady vii. 215 [The] accomplishment of scrawling their names at the bottom of a cheque. |
b. To cover (a surface) with scrawling inscriptions or marks. Also with over.
| 1647 Cowley Mistr., Written in Juice Lemmon ii, Like Hypocrites, which seem unspotted here; But when they sadly come to dye, And the last Fire their Truth must try, Scrauld ore like thee, and blotted they appear. 1771 Smollett Humph. Cl. 13 July (1815) 237 The windows of all the inns are scrawled with doggrel rhimes. 1841 Borrow Zincali I. ix. i. 153 Many people carry papers about with them, scrawled with hieroglyphics. 1860 Motley Netherl. I. i. 2 Letters..all to be scrawled over in the margin by the diligent old man. 1889 Rider Haggard Allan's Wife 36 The western tempest was scrawled all over with lines of intolerable light. |
2. intr. To scribble, to write carelessly or awkwardly. Also † to scrawl it.
Quot. 1647 under 1 b may be an indirect passive and may belong here.
| 1611 Cotgr., Griffonner, to write fast, and ill; to scrible, to scrall it. 1748 Richardson Clarissa (1811) IV. 47, I have ordered Dorcas..to be always scrawling with a pen, lest inky fingers should give suspicion. 1842 Tennyson Day-Dream 142 The butler drank, the steward scrawl'd. 1878 Browning Poets Croisic 75 Splash and scrawl, Completed lay thy piece, swift penman Paul! |