different between scuff vs scrabble

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sk?f/
• Rhymes: -?f

Etymology 1

From Scots scuff (“to touch lightly, graze, hit”), of obscure origin. Perhaps from Old Norse skúfa (“to shove, push aside”), from Proto-Germanic *skeuban? (“to shove”). Or, perhaps imitative. More at English shove.

Verb

scuff (third-person singular simple present scuffs, present participle scuffing, simple past and past participle scuffed)

1. To scrape the feet while walking.
2. To hit lightly, to brush against.
3. To mishit (a shot on a ball) due to poor contact with the ball.

Derived terms

• scuff mark

Related terms

• scuffle

Translations

Noun

scuff (plural scuffs)

1. (sometimes attributive) A mark left by scuffing or scraping.

   Someone left scuff marks in the sand.

   • 2015, Charles W. Jones, Hydrangeas on the Lanai

     He flung his shoes across the room, their soles leaving black scuffs on the dingy wall.

Related terms

• scuffed

Translations

Further reading

• Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.

Etymology 2

Noun

scuff (plural scuffs)

1. A scurf; a scale.
2. The back part of the neck; the scruff.
   • 1858, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, What Will He Do with It?

     One of the biggest and most redoubted of the Black Family was now in that seat of dignity, and, refusing surlily to yield it at Jasper's rude summons, was seized by the scuff of the neck, and literally hurled on the table in front.

See also

• scoff
• scruff

Anagrams

• Cuffs, cuffs

English

Etymology

From Middle Dutch schrabbelen, frequentative of schrabben (“to scrape”), equivalent to scrab +? -le. More at scrape.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?sk?æb?l/
• Rhymes: -æb?l

Verb

scrabble (third-person singular simple present scrabbles, present participle scrabbling, simple past and past participle scrabbled)

1. (intransitive) To scrape or scratch powerfully with hands or claws.
   • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, Moonfleet Chapter 4

     […] there came no answer, except the echo of my own voice sounding hollow and far off down in the vault. So in despair I turned back to the earth wall below the slab, and scrabbled at it with my fingers, till my nails were broken and the blood ran out; having all the while a sure knowledge, like a cord twisted round my head, that no effort of mine could ever dislodge the great stone.
2. (transitive) To gather hastily.
3. (intransitive) To move with difficulty by making rapid movements back and forth with the hands or paws.

   She was on her hands and knees scrabbling in the mud, looking for her missing wedding ring.

4. (intransitive) To scribble.

   • David […] scrabbled on the doors of the gate.

5. (transitive) To mark with irregular lines or letters; to scribble on.

   to scrabble paper

Derived terms

• hardscrabble
• scrabbler

Translations

See also

• scrab
• scramble
• scrap
• scrape
• scrapple (a sausage-like food)

Noun

scrabble (plural scrabbles)

1. A scramble.

   a scrabble for dear life

Anagrams

• cabblers, clabbers, crabbles

French

Noun

scrabble m (plural scrabbles)

1. (Scrabble) a play where all seven tiles are used; a bingo

Verb

scrabble

1. first-person singular present indicative of scrabbler
2. third-person singular present indicative of scrabbler
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of scrabbler
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of scrabbler
5. second-person singular imperative of scrabbler

Further reading

• “scrabble” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).