▪ I. scribbling, vbl. n.1
(ˈskrɪblɪŋ)
[f. scribble v.1 + -ing1.]
1. The action of the verb scribble v.1
c 1532 Latimer Let. to Baynton in Foxe A. & M. (1583) 1751/2, I had made an end of this scribling, and was beginning to write it agayne more truely and more distinctly, and to correcte it. 1536 Beerley in Lett. Suppress. Monasteries (Camden) 132 My lowly and myck scrybullyng unto your nobull grace at this tyme. 1709 Pope Ess. Crit. 595 When they promise to give scribbling o'er. 1820 Byron Blues ii. 9 What with learning, and teaching, and scribbling, and shining In science and art. |
2. Something scribbled; a scrawl or scribble.
1705 Hearne Collect. 11 Dec. (O.H.S.) I. 124 In this Book are a great many scribblings of William Smith. 1835 W. Irving Abbotsford ¶2, I..had reason to think, from the interest he had taken in some of my earlier scribblings, that a visit from me would not be deemed an intrusion. 1856 Stanley Sinai & P. i. (ed. 3) 58 Their likeness to the scribblings of casual travellers in halting-places. 1894 R. B. Sharpe Birds Gt. Brit. I. 47 There are distinct scribblings near the larger end [of the eggs], similar to those of a Yellow Bunting. |
3. Short for
scribbling paper.
1859 Stationers' Hand-bk. 64 Demy Scribling (scribling demy), a writing paper of a printing demy size. |
4. attrib. as
scribbling-block,
scribbling-book,
scribbling diary,
scribbling pad,
scribbling paper;
scribbling itch,
tr. L.
Cacoethes scribendi.
1908 Outlook 26 Sept. 397/1 With pencil and *scribbling-block in his hand. |
1850 Thackeray Pendennis xlii, He had taken the manuscript out of a long-neglected chest, containing..old Oxbridge *scribbling-books, his old surplice, and battered cap and gown. |
1883 Stationers' & Booksellers' Jrnl. Advt. iii, Small *Scribbling Diary. |
1787 Wolcot (P. Pindar) Ode upon Ode Wks. 1812 I. 440 I'm much afraid of that same *scribbling-itch. 1905 A. Dobson De Libris 149 But that some scribbling itch attacked Him in and out of season. |
1938 N. Marsh Artists in Crime xiii. 189 Nigel had been left to write a very guarded story..on one of Troy's *scribbling-pads. 1967 C. Drummond Death at Furlong Post i. 5 The Chairman looked doubtful; his Board appeared absorbed in their scribbling pads. |
1803 Gradus ad Cantabr. 118 *Scribbling paper, an inferior sort used by the mathematicians, and in the lecture room. |
▪ II. ˈscribbling, vbl. n.2 [f. scribble v.2 + -ing1.] The action of
scribble v.
2; the first process in the operation of carding wool.
1683 Rec. Cloth Manuf. New Mills (S.H.S.) 56 For piking scriblling and oyll. 10s. 1835 Ure Philos. Manuf. 165 Scribbling is merely a rude species of carding the oiled wool. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 339/2 The various stages in the manufacture of woollen cloth, then, are:—..8. Oiling and teasing. 9. Scribbling by first carding-engine. |
b. attrib. as
scribbling-card,
scribbling-machine,
scribbling-mill, etc.
1682 Rec. Cloth Manuf. New Mills (S.H.S.) 17 One dozen scrubleing cards. 1795 Statist. Acc. Scot. XV. 80 They have erected a teasing or scribling, and a carding machine. 1796 Monthly Mag. May 350/1 The scribbling mill at Holbeck, near Leeds, has been lately consumed by fire. 1805 J. Luccock Nat. Wool 179 Kemps are commonly much coarser than the wool in which they are found, and often so intermingled with it as not to be separated even by the motion of the scribbling machine. 1857 P.O. Directory Yorksh. 1051 Scribbling Millers. 1876 W. Cudworth Round abt. Bradford 373 Extensive premises..containing willeying, moiting, scribbling, and condensing machinery. 1888 J. Paton in Encycl. Brit. XXIV. 659/1 Fig. 4—Diagram of Scribbling Card. |
▪ III. ˈscribbling, ppl. a. [f. scribble v.1 + -ing2.] 1. Given to scribbling.
1595 Hist. France Ep. Ded. A 4, In this scribling age. 1641 Howell Vote ii, Scribling pamphletors who story stain With loose imperfect passages. 1765 Goldsm. New Simile 2 Long had I sought in vain to find A likeness for the scribbling kind. |
† 2. Badly or carelessly written.
Obs. rare.
1592 G. Harvey Four Lett. Wks. (Grosart) I. 187 Is this Greene with the running Head, and the scribling Hand. 1621 Sir G. Calvert in Fortescue Papers (Camden) 154 An yll favored piece of paper and a scribling hand. |
Hence
ˈscribblingly adv., in a scribbling manner.
1653 in Shropsh. Parish Documents (1903) 246 What was disorderly and scribblingly set down on this side was taken out of a luse paper. a 1697 Aubrey Lives (1898) I. 10 These minutes which I have hastily and scriblingly here sett downe. 1860 in Worcester. |