English edit

Etymology edit

scramble +‎ -y

Adjective edit

scrambly (comparative more scrambly, superlative most scrambly)

  1. (of a walk) Involving a certain amount of climbing.
    • 1999, Ronald Turnbull, Walking in the Lowther Hills:
      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.
    • 2003, Gillian Price, Walking in the Dolomites:
      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...
    • 2006, Dan Bailey, Scotland's mountain ridges:
      In summer this is a scrambly mixture of vegetation and loose rock; when frozen solid or snow covered it's rather more pleasant.
  2. (informal) scrambled, mixed-up, unclear, garbled
    • 1999, Jasmine Lee O'Neill, Through the eyes of aliens: a book about autistic people:
      It is possible, in this scrambly way, not only to see colours, but almost to smell them, too.