Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A struggle with others; a scramble.
- To stir about in an eager, confused way; scramble; struggle for place or possession.
- To shift awkwardly; sprawl; be awkward; be without order or method.
- To mangle; maul.
- To scatter; squander; dissipate.
- To collect together without order or method.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb obsolete To mangle.
- intransitive verb To move awkwardly; to be shuffling, irregular, or unsteady; to sprawl; to shamble.
- intransitive verb To move about pushing and jostling; to be rude and turbulent; to scramble.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb intransitive To move awkwardly; to be shuffling, irregular, or unsteady; to sprawl; to shamble.
- verb intransitive To move about pushing and jostling; to be rude and turbulent; to scramble; struggle for place or possession.
- verb transitive To
mangle .
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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And what remains to be seen is the issue of which school will scamble for that kind dough, that has strings attached to it all over the place.
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And what remains to be seen is the issue of which school will scamble for that kind dough, that has strings attached to it all over the place.
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It shows the fact that this is not a viable plan as the democrats have to scamble to pay for something that is not going to add to the debt.
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In hindsight, he had some chutzpah to make Hill and Barack scamble around his NC home for days with an endorsement bait.
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There will be a lot of economic activity generated as a result of the scamble to replace oil-based engines.
Sound Politics: "Peak Oil" Despair Versus Energy Innovation 2007
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With Obama winning 14 states to Clinton's eight and many of those states red states ~ the political map favors Obama who is well organized and has the momentum versus the Clintons who are now having to scamble and dig into their own millions to finance their political ambitions and the surprise ascendancy of Barack Obama.
THE HILLARY CORONATION THAT NEVER HAPPENED / SUPER TUESDAY 2008
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They tend to pricey to shoot and they scamble your brains.
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Anderson's one-yard TD scamble early in the final period made it
USATODAY.com 2004
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She had to go on, but the panic was starting to overwhelm her, and if she gave in to it, she was liable to fall while trying to scamble madly down the ladder.
BLAZE OF GLORY SIMON HAWKE 1995
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She had to go on, but the panic was starting to overwhelm her, and if she gave in to it, she was liable to fall while trying to scamble madly down the ladder.
BLAZE OF GLORY SIMON HAWKE 1995
uselessness commented on the word scamble
noun. The overconfident stride of a man who wants to take your money.
January 4, 2007
reesetee commented on the word scamble
Surprisingly, this is actually a word! OED says "A scramble, confused struggle" for the noun form; for the verb form, "To struggle with others for money, fruit, sweetmeats, etc. lying on the ground or thrown to a crowd; hence, to struggle in an indecorous and rapacious manner in order to obtain something." So your thwartmanteau is pretty close, uselessness. :-)
February 5, 2008