scrawl

Etymology 1

Possibly from Middle English scraulen (“to spread out one's limbs; sprawl”), itself an alteration of spraulen (“to sprawl”) or craulen, crawlen (“to crawl”). Alternatively, from scrall, a contraction of scrabble.

noun

1. Irregular, possibly illegible handwriting.
2. A hastily or carelessly written note etc.
3. Writing that lacks literary merit.
4. (countable, uncommon) A broken branch of a tree.
5. (uncommon) The young of the dog-crab.

verb

1. (transitive) To write something hastily or illegibly.
   She scrawled the main points onto her notepad
2. (intransitive) To write in an irregular or illegible manner.
3. (intransitive) To write unskilfully and inelegantly.
   c. 1710-1730, Jonathan Swift (probably), Sandys's Ghost Though with a golden pen you scrawl.

Etymology 2

From Middle English scraulen (“to crawl”), itself an alteration of crawlen (“to crawl”). More at crawl.

verb

1. To creep; crawl; (by extension) to swarm with crawling things
   November 9, 1550, Hugh Latimer, A Sermon preached at Stamford we will scrape and scrawl, and catch and pull to us all that we may get