Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. One who scribbles, especially an author regarded as very minor, untalented, or disreputable: a scribbler of sentimental verse.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. One who scribbles or writes carelessly, loosely, or badly; hence, a petty author; a writer of no reputation.
- n. A machine used for scribbling cotton or woolen fiber.
- n. A person who tends such a machine and is said to scribble the fiber.
Wiktionary
- n. One who scribbles; a hasty or untalented writer or artist.
- n. dated A machine for coarse carding or teasing of wool.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. One who scribbles; a petty author; a writer of no reputation; a literary hack.
- n. A scribbling machine.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a writer whose handwriting is careless and hard to read
- n. informal terms for journalists
Etymologies
- scribble + -er (Wiktionary)
Examples
“David Aaronovitch criticises the "melange of questionable statistics, assertions dressed as facts and straightforward scapegoating cranked out by Migration Watch UK and its main scribbler, Anthony Browne", and attacks the 'lies, damned lies' of the anti-immigration lobby.”
“(The scribbler was a reporter for the Detroit News, which ran a front-page story about that Helms-Ellis-Bauman confab in the next day's late editions.)”
“A scrivener is a public copyist, but that noun has fallen into disuse except among notaries public; a scribe, once “a copyist of biblical texts,” is now used jocularly to mean “journalist,” and a scribbler is a put-down of a writer.”
“For whom did it concern to know that one or another scribbler was a dunce?”
“The subject itself had nothing generally interesting, for whom did it concern to know that one or another scribbler was a dunce?”
Lives of the English Poets: Prior, Congreve, Blackmore, Pope
“[249] Yet Johnson, in his _Life of Pope_ (_Works_, viii. 276), seems to be much of Boswell's opinion; for in writing of _The Dunciad_, he says: -- 'The subject itself had nothing generally interesting, for whom did it concern to know that one or another scribbler was a dunce?”
“If "scribbler" is a writer, why could not "bad writer" be omitted?”
“Accursed scribbler!" cries the wretch, whose false”
“But it would be a mistake to think of Mr. Ferry as just another scribbler in a Left Bank café.”
“Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back.”
Matthew Yglesias » Nobody Wants to Lose an Aircraft Carrier for Their State
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘scribbler’.
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tale-of-two-cities
Words from the book 'Tale of two cities'
attacks, insecure, minorca, forgets, attested, revered, necessary, nothing, bankers, genoese, burthen, tobacco and 14 more...
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Spinning
This list is basically an excuse for me to list the word wool four times in a row.
wool, spin, spinning, cotton, scribble, scribbler, scribbling, spindle whorl, spindlewhorl, card, card-clothing, carding-machine and 68 more...
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Clarissa, Or, The History of a Young ...
These words are from Samuel Richardson's novel Clarissa, Or, The History of a Young Lady, 1747-48
adumbrate, virago, varlet, rencounter, akimbo, palliate, amanuensis, amok, equipage, cully, se'ennight, resentments and 560 more...
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-scrib-, -script-
write
scribbler, manuscript, script, scripture, scribe, scribble, conscribe, conscription, scripts
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Writer, Writer!
columnist, contributor, novelist, poet, wordsmith, stringer, freelancer, ghostwriter, journalist, correspondent, essayist, speechwriter and 99 more...
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jde's Words
plethora, yes, omination, edacious, palindrome, cacophony, glory, fantasticality, wizzled, cajole, light, question and 5 more...
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Writers
writer, scribbler, scrawler, author, wordsmith, novelist, scriptwriter, tragedian, dramatist, dramaturge, poetaster, scribe and 27 more...
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Hollywood Speak
From Uncle John's Unsinkable Bathroom Reader:
"The entertainment industry trade journal Variety has a 'slanguage' all its own. To assist the 'aud,' here's a glossary to help make sense...crix, meller, click, b.o., sprocket opera, blurb, perf, tubthump, ayem, ankle, mouse, lense and 25 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for scribbler.
tbtabby In Hollywood, it's slang for a TV writer. Aug 26, 2009