How to Use scrawl in a Sentence

scrawl

verb
  • On the other side: a list of staff openings scrawled on the dry erase board.
    Hailey Branson-Potts, Los Angeles Times, 1 Aug. 2023
  • On Monday, the word was scrawled on the poster bearing Louk’s face.
    Kevin Sieff, Washington Post, 31 Oct. 2023
  • Dozens of names had been scrawled by people in heavy black ink.
    Compiled By Democrat-Gazette Staff From Wire Reports, Arkansas Online, 27 Aug. 2023
  • There were drawings scrawled on the wall, a desk spattered in paint.
    Emily Witt, The New Yorker, 9 Oct. 2023
  • Blurry, dark, with some crazy words scrawled on top of them.
    Julia Kramer, Bon Appetit, 23 Mar. 2018
  • In girls’ schools, the courage to scrawl a slogan on the blackboard is spreading to younger groups.
    Krista Stevens, Longreads, 1 Nov. 2022
  • Adding to the mystery: some writing was scrawled in black on the doll’s forehead.
    oregonlive, 19 Aug. 2019
  • Calderon invited the man to take a seat near the specials of the day scrawled in chalk on a blackboard.
    Vincent T. Davis, ExpressNews.com, 7 Oct. 2019
  • Roughly a half-dozen baseballs, each with a date and score scrawled across it.
    BostonGlobe.com, 25 Dec. 2019
  • Have scrawled on this ship, cracked the specked shell of job title to suck the rich, strange stuff that might become words shared.
    Nancy Lord, Anchorage Daily News, 15 Dec. 2019
  • The school also had a threat scrawled on a bathroom stall on Wednesday.
    Cliff Pinckard, cleveland.com, 23 Feb. 2018
  • The nicknames are scrawled on a whiteboard in the trailer office.
    Sammy Roth, Los Angeles Times, 16 Apr. 2024
  • Madison Hinson died of cancer and Hontzas had scrawled her name on the tape.
    al, 24 Aug. 2019
  • Tyler receives a scary message scrawled on his photos in the lab.
    refinery29.com, 18 May 2018
  • Warhol’s quote about 15 minutes of fame is scrawled on the bathroom mirror, next to a fat pair of red lips.
    Lori Rackl, chicagotribune.com, 6 Nov. 2019
  • The name of the last occupant is scrawled in pen on a piece of masking tape outside the doorway.
    Bill Plaschke, latimes.com, 4 June 2018
  • Behind him, math facts are scrawled on a concrete wall.
    Gregg Doyel, Indianapolis Star, 8 July 2019
  • The lyrics are scrawled on the back of a studio recording sheet, used to account for the time and cost of a recording session.
    Leah Asmelash, CNN, 11 Jan. 2020
  • Graffiti scrawled across the face of the Savior in paintings.
    Greg Palkot | Fox News, Fox News, 28 Oct. 2019
  • The boy drew up his own plays, scrawling one in the dirt during his first season playing the game.
    Houston Mitchell, Los Angeles Times, 15 Aug. 2023
  • The name of the victim and her birthday were scrawled on paper and left on the altar, along with her photo.
    Beth Warren, The Courier-Journal, 17 June 2024
  • When cutout hearts in windows and chin-up messages scrawled in chalk still were enough to cheer us up and keep fear at bay.
    Los Angeles Times, 4 Apr. 2020
  • Has any recipient of that email not seen worse words scrawled on a wall?
    Leah Garchik, SFChronicle.com, 11 June 2019
  • There’s a message scrawled on the balloon in marker that can now be clearly seen.
    Andy Schatschneider, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 5 Feb. 2018
  • Filthy walls were scrawled with names, pleas and snatches of poetry.
    Declan Walsh Ivor Prickett, New York Times, 5 June 2024
  • Teenagers have scrawled the message in their notebooks and carved it into at least one pumpkin.
    BostonGlobe.com, 31 Oct. 2019
  • The names weren’t haphazardly scrawled all over the ball, either.
    Andrew Dalton, The Seattle Times, 13 Aug. 2018
  • Besides making the art look tacky, the tape obscured a spot where a signature may have been scrawled.
    Jason Daley, Smithsonian, 24 May 2018
  • The Weeknd sported an off-white graphic hoodie by the brand along with scrawled-on jeans and a pair of colorful Pumas.
    Vogue, 4 Oct. 2018
  • Her only known cause of death was scrawled on the receipt of her $7 burial at the local Muslim cemetery.
    Omkar Khandekar, NPR, 17 June 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'scrawl.' 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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