▪ I. scrawling, vbl. n.
(ˈskrɔːlɪŋ)
[f. scrawl v.2 + -ing1.]
The action of scrawl v.2; scribbling, careless untidy writing.
| 1612 Brinsley Lud. Lit. xx. 230 Schollars now will be carefull to keepe their Greeke Testaments faire from blotting or scrauling. 1764 Reid Inquiry iv. §2. 108 Is it not pity that the refinements of a civilized life, instead of supplying the defects of natural language, should root it out, and plant in its stead..the scrawling of insignificant characters? 1809 W. Irving Knickerb. vi. viii. (1820) 424 The drop of ink which hangs trembling on his pen, which he may either dash upon the floor, or waste in idle scrawlings. 1848 Dickens Dombey xxxvii, After much painful scrawling and erasing,..the old woman produced this document. |
▪ II. † ˈscrawling, ppl. a.1 Obs.
[f. scrawl v.1 + -ing2.]
Crawling.
| 1561 J. Daus tr. Bullinger on Apoc. (1573) 219 The duste brought forth the scralling lise. 1589 Rare Tri. Love & Fortune i. in Five Old Plays (Roxb. Club) 84 Brought up in blood, and cherisht with scrauling snakes. 1637 G. Daniel Genius of this Isle 285 Here Scrauling wretches, too, too bad to tell, Endure a Torment. |
▪ III. scrawling, ppl. a.2
(ˈskrɔːlɪŋ)
[f. scrawl v.2 + -ing2.]
That scrawls. Of handwriting: Careless, untidy, illegible.
| 1747 Carte Hist. Eng. IV. 375 Parsons..could make a shift to write a scrawling hand. 1860 All Year Round No. 52. 33 He was continually shaking sand from a pepper⁓box over scrawling entries in marble-covered copy-books. 1886 G. Allen Maimie's Sake xvii, Written..in a loose, scrawling uneducated hand. |