scribble

• IPA^(key): /ˈskɹɪbəl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪbəl

From Middle English scribblen, scriblen, scryblen, scribelen, equivalent to scribe +‎ -le (frequentative suffix).

scribble (third-person singular simple present scribbles, present participle scribbling, simple past and past participle scribbled)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To write or draw carelessly and in a hurry.

   I suddenly remembered I needed to buy bleach, so scribbled it down on my shopping list.

2. To doodle.
3. To write badly; to work as an inferior author or journalist.

• (all senses): scrawl

• (write hurriedly): jot

• scribble down
• scribbler
• scribbleress
• transcribble

• scribe

scribble (countable and uncountable, plural scribbles)

1. Careless, hasty writing, doodle or drawing

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “Swedish skrubbla?”)

scribble (third-person singular simple present scribbles, present participle scribbling, simple past and past participle scribbled)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To card or tease (wool) coarsely; to run through a scribbler.

• “scribble”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “scribble”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

• cribbles