Thesaurus results for SCRABBLING

scrabbling

verb

present participle of scrabble

as in climbing

to move (as up or over something) often with the help of the hands in holding or pulling we scrabbled up a sand dune to get a better view of the sea

Synonyms & Similar Words

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as in fumbling

to search for something blindly or uncertainly he frantically scrabbled through the storage chest looking for the needed documents

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of scrabbling 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 Imagine combat choreographed by ants, swarms of elbows and legs scrabbling to emerge victorious. — Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times, 11 June 2026 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 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 That left the administration scrabbling for other ways to reimpose duties that were struck down. — Holly Ellyatt, CNBC, 12 Mar. 2026 Next went Marshall Allen, hands on his sax like feral scrabbling mice. — Literary Hub, 13 Feb. 2026 This left the ruling Labour Party scrabbling. — Max Goldbart, Deadline, 26 Nov. 2025 He’s blessed with a tense, scrabbling physicality on screen, plus a baby-Brando glower beneath a head of striking blond curls, and Nemes directs him into a stance of braced, vulnerable defensiveness that serves the film’s purposes well — even if his character, too, wants for interior light. — Guy Lodge, Variety, 28 Aug. 2025

Recent Examples of Synonyms for scrabbling

Verb

The stock market has rallied to all-time highs this year, climbing a wall of worry that included an energy shock from an ongoing war with Iran.

— Sarah Min, CNBC, 15 July 2026
Not long ago, a group of anthropologists were climbing the Inca Trail, the legendary hike through the cloud forests of the Andes Mountains that concludes at Machu Picchu’s Sun Gate.

— JD Shadel, Condé Nast Traveler, 15 July 2026

Definition of climbing

Verb

With Yerry De los Santos also fumbling a bunt in the eighth, the Yanks tallied a season-high four errors on the night.

— Gary Phillips, New York Daily News, 26 June 2026
My first few hours with the EM11 NL were marked by overshooting links, fumbling through simple selections, and occasionally wondering why anyone would voluntarily use a vertical mouse.

— Sascha Brodsky, PC Magazine, 21 June 2026

Definition of fumbling

Verb

As Meta races ahead with its multi-hundred-billion-dollar AI push, rivals Microsoft, Alphabet, and Amazon are also chasing the same tax breaks and energy deals from states scrambling for a piece of the AI boom.

— Sydney Lake, Fortune, 13 July 2026
Caregivers brace for pay cuts, and maybe homelessness States are scrambling to trim their budgets ahead of major provisions of Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which cuts roughly $1 trillion from Medicaid over the coming decade.

— Tara Bannow, STAT, 13 July 2026

Definition of scrambling

Verb

Semiconductors are looking tenuous here, as traders try to gauge whether the air is coming out of a trade where the retail crowd are using leverage to double down on bets.

— Sarah Min, CNBC, 17 July 2026
Resplendent in a dark top and flowered scarves, Jackie has his hair ratted out, creating a kind of nimbus around his poignant, ready-to-laugh face, which is powdered white, with shiny, metallic-looking paillettes around the eyes.

— Hilton Als, New Yorker, 17 July 2026

Definition of looking

Verb

Video on state broadcaster CCTV showed the students, wearing bright orange life vests, clambering onto boats that took them away from the surreal scene of school buildings rising out of a lake of muddy water.

— ABC News, ABC News, 9 July 2026
Others took the more dangerous approach of clambering onto roofs to spend the night.

— Dan Kelly July 8, Kansas City Star, 8 July 2026

Definition of clambering

Verb

In the 3-2 win over Cape Verde in the last 32, Mac Allister did the same, with his flick-on reaching Lisandro Martinez, who scored the go-ahead goal in extra time.

— Anantaajith Raghuraman, New York Times, 14 July 2026
Wednesday and Thursday will be hotter, with temps in downtown LA reaching the middle to upper 90s and interior valleys reaching up to 105.

— Kenton Gewecke, ABC News, 13 July 2026

Definition of reaching

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scrabbles

scrabbling

scrag

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“Scrabbling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/scrabbling. Accessed 18 Jul. 2026.

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Synonyms of scrabbling

verb

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