How to Use scrabble in a Sentence

scrabble

verb
  • He scrabbled at the slippery rock.
  • She scrabbled around in her handbag for a pen.
  • People were scrabbling over these enormous piles far off in the distance.
    — Jane Siegel, Travel + Leisure, 5 June 2025
  • The male nipped my ankles and scrabbled over my back, pushing me below the surface.
    — Jennifer Hayes, National Geographic, 19 Dec. 2019
  • Next went Marshall Allen, hands on his sax like feral scrabbling mice.
    — Literary Hub, 13 Feb. 2026
  • Her left hand is scrabbling over the surface of the thin soil, grasping at dead leaves, something to wipe herself.
    — Literary Hub, 28 Aug. 2025
  • Wild turkeys would emerge out of nowhere, scrabbling ahead of us in a conga line before flying into the trees.
    — Chris Bohjalian, Washington Post, 9 Nov. 2023
  • This left the ruling Labour Party scrabbling.
    — Max Goldbart, Deadline, 26 Nov. 2025
  • When these three men were dominating the circuit, the rest of the field were reduced to scrabbling over the crumbs.
    — Anthony Crupi, Sportico.com, 23 May 2025
  • The dog comes into being as a puppy, scrabbling with its littermates.
    — Jia Tolentino, The New Yorker, 28 Jan. 2017
  • O’Hara sings all but four of the play’s songs, and her voice is the kind of instrument that sends people scrabbling for metaphors.
    — Sara Holdren, Vulture, 28 Jan. 2024
  • Homer and Marge would be somewhere in their 60s, probably still scrabbling to make ends meet.
    — Todd Vanderwerff, Vox, 15 Apr. 2018
  • As a result, many brands are scrabbling around trying to win, retain, and earn the loyalty of their customers.
    — Adrian Swinscoe, Forbes.com, 7 May 2025
  • During cruising, the only sound was the muted crunch of Pirelli winter tires scrabbling for grip.
    — Don Sherman, Car and Driver, 5 July 2017
  • Videos have shown stampedes breaking out, and hundreds of people crushed together scrabbling for food.
    — Patrick Reevell, ABC News, 31 Jan. 2024
  • The plucky cable cars, scrabbling up its impossible hillsides.
    — Mark Z. Barabak, latimes.com, 21 Dec. 2017
  • That left the administration scrabbling for other ways to reimpose duties that were struck down.
    — Holly Ellyatt, CNBC, 12 Mar. 2026
  • This was enough for Harry Redknapp to roll down the window and scrabble around in his car’s filthy ashtray for some loose change.
    — SI.com, 26 Apr. 2018
  • Imagine combat choreographed by ants, swarms of elbows and legs scrabbling to emerge victorious.
    — Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times, 11 June 2026
  • In addition, its luxury pricing will turn off many hobbyists and content creators who are scrabbling to make ends meet.
    — Jim Fisher, PC Magazine, 25 June 2026
  • The series’ first season scrabbled around looking for a point for too long, before zeroing in on some ideas about the nature of consciousness.
    — Todd Vanderwerff, Vox, 18 Apr. 2018
  • In some places, punches were thrown, hair was pulled, faces were scratched and elderly customers were trampled underfoot as shoppers scrabbled to grab jars of the spread.
    — Kim Willsher, latimes.com, 26 Jan. 2018
  • Watch the hooves of a dying creature frantically scrabbling to escape, trying to obey signals from its brain that its body can no longer execute.
    — David E. Petzal, Field & Stream, 3 Dec. 2019
  • Now, airports from New Zealand to Canada are scrabbling for public support in a bid to remain open.
    — Natasha Frost, Quartz, 26 Mar. 2020
  • On Tuesday, evacuees still shut out of the islands scrabbled at every piece of news about unheard-from friends, family, boats and houses.
    — Alan Blinder, Marc Santora and Vivian Yee, New York Times, 12 Sep. 2017
  • The Eagles have scrabbled at multiple offensive schemes while leveraging the strength of their defense.
    — Brooks Kubena, New York Times, 9 Jan. 2026
  • Philip Howard Sauer and four fellow Marines began to scrabble toward the crest of Hill 861.
    — Carl Prine, sandiegouniontribune.com, 23 Apr. 2018
  • The actress and producer has had great success in recent years, turning her talents to working behind the scenes of comedies about young people scrabbling their way through life.
    — Kelly Lawler, USA Today, 2 June 2026
  • At the novel’s outset, Ezra scrabbles through his world with honest hunger and understandable, if sometimes pedantic, disdain for those with more than him.
    — Casey McQuiston, Washington Post, 7 Mar. 2023
  • In the new South, one scrabbling to industrialize, business owners could now hire unpaid labor through the penal system.
    — Sara Holdren, Vulture, 26 Apr. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'scrabble.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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