Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To write hastily or sloppily.
  • intransitive verb To write something in a hasty or sloppy manner.
  • noun Sloppy, often illegible handwriting.
  • noun Something, such as a note, written hastily or sloppily.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To creep; crawl; by extension, to swarm with crawling things.
  • To draw or mark awkwardly and irregularly with a pen, pencil, or other marking implement; write awkwardly, hastily, or carelessly; scribble: as, to scrawl a letter; also, to make irregular lines or bad writing on: as, to scrawl a piece of paper.
  • To mark with irregular wandering or zigzag lines: as, eggs scrawled with black (natural marking).
  • To write unskilfully and inelegantly.
  • noun The young of the dog-crab.
  • noun A trawl.
  • noun A piece of unskilful or inelegant writing; also, a piece of hasty, bad writing.
  • noun In law, same as scroll-seal.
  • noun A ragged, broken branch of a tree; brushwood.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To write unskillfully and inelegantly.
  • intransitive verb obsolete See crawl.
  • noun Unskillful or inelegant writing; that which is unskillfully or inelegantly written.
  • transitive verb To draw or mark awkwardly and irregularly; to write hastily and carelessly; to scratch; to scribble.

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

  • noun An Irregular, possibly illegible handwriting.
  • noun A hastily, or carelessly written note etc.
  • verb transitive To write something hastily or illegibly.
  • verb intransitive To write in an irregular or illegible manner.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun poor handwriting
  • verb write carelessly

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Perhaps from obsolete scrawl, to gesticulate, sprawl, from Middle English scrawlen, probably blend of sprawlen, to sprawl; see sprawl and craulen, to crawl; see crawl.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Possibly Middle English

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Examples

  • For anyone who has been unlucky enough to befall the horrors of my handwriting, firstly I say I’m sorry – but secondly – if I did that, I would have no idea what I have just written – much less the scrawl from a day ago. thank goodness for spellchecker as my typing is just as bad – but at least the letters are uniformly shaped.

    Don’t panic « Write Anything 2009

  • This series of paintings takes as its title a scrawl of graffiti on a rock-cut along the Trans Canada Highway near Sudbury.

    DIG IT SKID! The Nag 2009

  • There was no other copy in existence except the original scrawl, which is now lying up stairs in an old trunk full of papers.

    Historical Documentation Concerning the Radical Piracy of _Wat Tyler_ 2007

  • I recall the scrawl that ran just below the "McDonald's": "10,000 hamburgers served."

    The clock anvil and the lie that business creates jobs 2009

  • We passed through bustling Hispanic neighborhoods filled with colorful bodegas and the smells of hot frying food, and through quieter areas where the signs were in Asian scrawl.

    Hacker - Death at the Member-Guest Bartlett, James Y. 2004

  • Judging by my scrawl, which is worse than usual, I should say the anxiety had left its mark, but I am none the worse otherwise.

    Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley — Volume 2 Thomas Henry Huxley 1860

  • It displays a curious-looking scrawl which is the monogram of the first absolute king!

    Pelle the Conqueror — Volume 03 Martin Andersen Nex�� 1911

  • It displays a curious-looking scrawl which is the monogram of the first absolute king!

    Pelle the Conqueror — Complete Martin Andersen Nex�� 1911

  • With thine own name scrawl'd through it, defacing a soul? "

    Lucile Owen Meredith 1861

  • She filled out a consent form and held the clipboard under his hand so Gene could scrawl his initials, which he was able to do unsteadily.

    Manifesting Michelangelo Joseph Pierce Farrell 2011

Comments

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  • Of course his handwriting is on the scrawl. He is a doctor.

    June 18, 2007