Dictionary

scrambly en · ADJ

Etymology

From scramble + -y.

Meanings

1. (of a walk) Involving a certain amount of climbing.
   • In summer this is a scrambly mixture of vegetation and loose rock; when frozen solid or snow covered it's rather more pleasant. 2006, Dan Bailey, Scotland's mountain ridges:
   • A ledge takes you behind the first fall, then it's over a rise and down a steep scrambly gully in the shadow of towering red flanks... 2003, Gillian Price, Walking in the Dolomites:
   • You can now take a steep and scrambly path uphill to the higher, waymarked path, or else return to the roadside for the official start of that same path. 1999, Ronald Turnbull, Walking in the Lowther Hills:
2. (informal) scrambled, mixed-up, unclear, garbled
   • It is possible, in this scrambly way, not only to see colours, but almost to smell them, too. 1999, Jasmine Lee O'Neill, Through the eyes of aliens: a book about autistic people:

Forms