Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Scrawling; loose; ill-formed and irregular: noting writing or manuscript.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adverb Written in the manner of a scrawl, written sloppily and in haste, hard to read.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • I type very quickly and find when the story is flowing and the characters urging me on – my fingers fly so much faster than I could ever capture with my scrawly writing.

    Longhand « Write Anything 2009

  • True to form, the scrawly Adam began to construct an Eve on the tiles, turning from time to time to check the screen of his own receiver to make sure his audience was still there.

    Making Light: What future we were making 2010

  • There was a treatise on Afghan tribal autonomy that was highly annotated in a scrawly hand.

    Going Mutant Dr. Barry Leed 2010

  • Why is it so many TV toons have horrible, scrawly, unappealing-looking characters these days?

    Hand-Drawn Land Steve Hulett 2009

  • But what we do know is that according to data submitted by the state of Oregon to the EAC, Clackamas County had 146,968 ballots cast and not a single signature was too squiggly, scrawly or tilted to mismatch, and that Oregon has one of the lowest signature mismatch rates in America.

    Oregon & Kentucky: Scribbled sigs & moonshine math 2008

  • I'm also having tendinitis problems in my right hand, where I'm trying to write checks for the bills and suddenly lose the ability to form letters, even the scrawly crappy letters I can usually form.

    May 19th, 2006 2006

  • As the story points out, doctors scrawly handwriting for a start, but how to do it?

    Archive 2007-08-01 2007

  • Out of heavy, slate-gray denim, hand-painted with black fabric paint in a totally random, scrawly sort of way--not unlike the doodles that were all over my notebooks at the time.

    Prom Time (circa 1989) - A Dress A Day 2007

  • I gave dad a black notebook to write it all down in his scrawly left handed writing.

    Are we competent today? 2006

  • It was addressed in a large, scrawly and unfamiliar hand.

    An American Tragedy 2004

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