▪ I. scribble, n.
(ˈskrɪb(ə)l)
Also 7–8 scrible.
[f. scribble v.1]
1. Something hastily or carelessly written, esp. a depreciatory term for a letter (usually one's own); also, a worthless or trivial composition.
| 1577 Sidney Lett. Misc. Wks. (1829) 304 But I will leaue [that] till I may my selfe say it unto yow, and so, his speeches at my farewell, w{supc}{suph} I am afraide I was in the beginninge of these scribbles to longe in. 1592 Sir H. Unton Corr. (Roxb.) 397 Your honors pardon I crave for this my shorte and hastie scribbles. 1632 Hide in Randolph's Jealous Lovers To Author, When they that write by guesse, Scatter their scribbles, and invade the presse. 1691 Wood Ath. Oxon. II. 155 He made a shift to get a lively⁓hood by his mendicant scribbles. 1711 Hearne Collect. (O.H.S.) III. 131 In the Margin..are some scribbles. 1730 Swift in Portland Papers (Hist. MSS. Comm.) VI. 33 If a scribble comes out complaining of our hardships here, it is infallibly laid at my door. 1814 J. Adams Wks. (1856) X. 96 As you seem to have found some amusement in some of my scribbles, I beg your acceptance of another morsel. 1865 Princess Alice Mem. 14 Aug. (1884) 107, I have made little scribbles on the way. |
2. Hurried or negligent and irregular writing; an example of this. Also, a number of irregular and unmeaning marks made with pen or pencil.
| 1709 Steele & Swift Tatler No. 70 ¶7, I shall trouble you with no more Scribble. 1788 Twining in Select Papers T. Family (1887) 185, I shall refer you for my thanks to the packet which you will receive, containing no less than five sheets of scribble. 1828 D'Israeli Chas. I, I. ii. 19 The hand-writing of Charles..was elegant, and opposite to the slovenly scribble of his father. 1841 Hawthorne Amer. Note-bks. (1868) II. 21 Did you ever behold such a vile scribble as I write since I became a farmer? 1881 Fitch Lect. Teach. 192 The scribble of men who think good writing a thing for clerks and shopmen. 1896 Amer. Annals Deaf Feb. 70 The speed of writing, even at a scribble, hardly exceeds thirty words a minute. |
† b. transf. A hurried manner of walking. Obs. (? nonce-use.)
| 1665 Howard Committee i. 1, O are you come, Long look't for comes at last. What,—you have a slow set pace, As well as your hasty scribble sometimes. |
3. attrib. and Comb.
| 1653 [F. Philips] Consid. Crt. Chancery 24 Other Mungrel and Scrible dashed hands made out of the Roman and Italian. 1907 Edin. Rev. July 230 The conventional ‘scribble’ foliage has descended to oblivion with the drawing books of our fathers. |
▪ II. scribble, v.1
(ˈskrɪb(ə)l)
Forms: 5 scribyl, 6 scribel, -il, -ul, screble, scrybel, skrible, 6–7 scryble, scrible, 6– scribble.
[app. ad. late med.L. scrībillāre (cf. rare class. L. conscrībillāre), a diminutive formation on L. scrībĕre to write. Cf. G. skribbeln, skribeln, for which recent writers substitute schreibeln, f. schreiben; OHG. had scribilôn (? î), ‘scriptitare’.]
1. trans. To write hastily or carelessly. a. To write in an irregular, slovenly, or illegible hand through haste or carelessness; also, to produce (marks, a drawing, etc.) or portray (an object) by rapid and irregular strokes like those of hurried writing. b. To write hurriedly or thoughtlessly, so that what is written is faulty in style or worthless in substance.
| c 1465 Plumpton Corr. (Camden) 14 Scribled in hast with mine owne hand in default of other helpe. 1490 Paston Lett. III. 363 Scribyllyd in the moste haste, at..Aucland. 1513 More Rich. III, Wks. 56 For al y⊇ time..could scant haue suffised vnto y⊇ bare wryting alone, all had it bene but in paper & scribled forth in hast at aduenture. 1537 Layton in Lett. Suppress. Monasteries (Camden) 77 Scribullede this Satterday, an written with the hasty hand of your assurede servant. 1575 G. Harvey Letter-bk. (Camden) 90 An answer to a..vayne letter..scribblid longe since. 1653 D. Osborne Lett. (1903) 15 This (if you can read it, for 'tis strangely scribbled) will be enough to answer yours. 1692 Bentley Boyle Lect. ii. 38 That the innumerable Members of a ‘Human Body’..were at first fortuitously scribbled, and by meer accident compacted into this beautifull, and noble, and most wonderfully usefull Frame. 1710–11 Swift Jrnl. to Stella 31 Jan., So I could not scribble my morning lines to MD. 1764 Oxf. Sausage 184, I scribble Verses? why you know, I left the Muses long ago. 1842 S. Sharpe Egypt under Romans iii. 66 Travellers..have at all times been fond of carving or scribbling their names on the spot. 1884 Publisher & Bookbuyer's Jrnl. 15 Nov. 19/1 Writers who scribble bosh. 1899 M. Creighton in Life & Lett. (1904) II. xii. 403, I must scribble a line to tell you how much I feel for you. |
| fig. 1532 More Confut. Tindale Wks. 728/2 But if he feele it written there in dede as he saith he doth, then he feleth it scribled and scraped in his hert by the croked clouen clawes of the deuill. |
c. With various advs., as away, down, out. † Also to scribble up: to compile hastily.
| 1583 J. Hawkins in Archæologia XXXIII. 193, I have brefflye..scryblyd out a note of the joynnynge of thordynary and extraordynary together, which I send. 1596 H. Clapham Briefe Bible ii. 234, I haue for your vses, sodainly scribled vp this Breviarie of the Bible. 1619 Hales Golden Rem. ii. (1673) 70 His sudden and unexpected departure hath made me scrible up this, more rudely and concisely than I had intended. 1800 Lamb Lett. (1849) 113, I could not resist so facile and moderate demand, so scribbled out another, omitting sundry things. 1826 J. W. Croker in C. Papers (1884) 20 Mar., I was easily induced to take up my pen..and I scribbled away a reply. 1831 Greville Mem. 31 July (1875) II. 174, I have scribbled down all I can recollect of a very loose conversation. 1901 Athenæum 31 Aug. 294/1 The liquid brush-work with which the light leaves of the oak were rapidly and easily scribbled down by the painter. |
d. To cover with scribblings. Chiefly with over.
| 1540 Palsgr. Acolastus Ep. Ded. A iij b, They chuse moste commonly the very worste [words], and therewith scryble the bokes of theyr latyne auctours. a 1593 Marlowe Ovid's Elegies ii. v. 18 Not silent were thine eyes, the board with wine Was scribled, and thy fingers writ a line. 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, iv. ii. 88 Is not this a lamentable thing..that Parchment being scribled ore, should vndoe a man. 1667 Milton P.L. viii. 83 How [they will] gird the Sphear With Centric and Eccentric scribl'd o'er, Cycle and Epicycle, Orb in Orb. 1702 Addison Dial. Medals iii. Wks. 1766 III. 154 Having scribbled over both sides [of the medal], they are forced, as it were, to write upon the margin. 1717 Berkeley Tour in Italy Wks. 1871 IV. 519 Most of these obelisks are scribbled over with hieroglyphics. 1852 Thackeray Esmond i. iii, The page found my lord's sheet of paper scribbled over with dogs and horses. 1859 Tennyson Merlin & V. 527 Thou read the book! And every margin scribbled, crost, and cramm'd With comment. 1882 B. D. W. Ramsay Recoll. Mil. Serv. II. xiii. 26 The walls of every room are scribbled over with the names of visitors. |
| fig. 1651 Hobbes Leviath. ii. xxx. 176 The Common-peoples minds..scribbled over with the opinions of their Doctors. |
2. intr. To write something hastily or carelessly, either as to handwriting or composition; to produce abundance of worthless writing. Also, to make random or irregular lines resembling careless writing.
| 1534 Cranmer Let. cxviii. Misc. Writ. (Parker Soc.) II. 291, I have..made them to write their shepe mark, or some other mark, as they can..scribble. 1601 Queen Elizabeth Let. to Mountjoy in Moryson's Itin. ii. (1617) 151, I end, scribling in hast, Your loving Soveraigne. E. R. 1661 Marvell Let. to Mayor of Hull 1 June, If I wanted my right hand yet I would scribble to you with my left, rather than neglect your business. 1721–2 Bolingbroke in Swift's Lett. (1766) II. 23 The expression is equivocal; a fault, which our language often betrays those, who scribble hastily, into. 1780 Cowper Progr. 318 Ye..teach her..To scribble as you scribbled at fifteen. 1782 F. Burney Cecilia x. vi, Contenting himself with doing nothing but scribble and scribe. 1844 Dickens Mart. Chuz. v, I have scribbled myself but have not yet published. 1880 Print. Trades Jrnl. XXX. 35 If a man scribbles for a Newspaper, or writes a magazine article. 1888 Burgon 12 Good Men II. v. 36 He utilized a railway journey..to get out his writing materials, and to scribble on a kind of swing-desk. |
b. to scribble on: to go on or continue scribbling or writing carelessly.
| 1575 Gascoigne Posies, Herbs 141 My hasty hand forth⁓with doth scribble on apace. 1683 Agathocles 6 The harden'd Wretches sinn'd, and scribbled on. |
c. quasi-trans. with complementary adv. or phrase.
| a 1704 T. Brown Laconics Wks. 1711 IV. 25 Stay but a while, and you'll find he'll scribble himself out of his little Reputation. 1734 Pope Let. to Swift 15 Sept., I have scribled the remainder of this page full. 1837 Lytton E. Maltrav. i. xv, At our age we have passion, fancy, sentiment; we can't read them away, nor scribble them away. |
† 3. Comb. as scribble-mania = scribbleomania; scribble-paper = scribbling paper; scribble-wit, a wit who scribbles (see quot.).
| 1672 Wycherley Love in Wood ii. i. 26 Lyd. But what is your Chamber-Wit or Scribble-Wit? Dap. He..searches all the Records of Wit, to compile a breviate of them for the use of Players [etc.]. 1792 Coleridge Let. to M. Evans (1895) 35, I have never had the scribble-mania stronger on me. 1854 ‘C. Bede’ Verdant Green ii. ii, Having furnished the table with pens, ink, and scribble-paper. |
▪ III. scribble, v.2
(skrɪb(ə)l)
Forms: 7–8 scrible, 7 scruble, 8– scribble.
[Prob. from LG.; cf. the synonymous G. schrubbeln, schrobbeln, schrobeln, schruppeln, schroppeln, Sw. skrabbla; the vb. is a frequentative f. LG., Ger. schrubben, schrobben: see scrub v.]
trans. To card or tease (wool) coarsely, to pass through a ‘scribbler’.
| 1682 [implied in scribbler2, scribbling vbl. n.2]. 1687 Rec. Cloth Manuf. New Mills (S.H.S.) 142 That noe cloath..be permitted to be woven, scribled or dressed by any of our servants. 1733 P. Lindsay Interest Scot. 106 At Gallowshiels are made a few coarse Kerseys,..and was their Wooll better scribled,..they might serve in place of the lowest-pric'd York-shires. 1835 Ure Philos. Manuf. 181 The wool having been scribbled in the ordinary way. 1884 W. S. B. M{supc}Laren Spinning (ed. 2) 53 All woollen yarns are carded or, to use another name, ‘scribbled’. |