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Glite Dictionary
😠 Irritable or rude ✍️ Hard to read
crabbed

crabbed

9.3
Hard to read because the writing is small, messy, or strange
  • adjective
  • /ˈkræbɪd/
  • Archaic
translation icon : illegible
  • The instructions were written in such a crabbed style that I couldn't understand them.

He thinks that it's, it's crabbed, it's too compressed in certain ways.

Examples

  • "An improvement on Master Arnor's crabbed script, I devoutly hope," Robinton remarked in a bland tone.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • "Can you read my crabbed hand?

    Fiction book (1992)

  • In her crabbed writing on those dot-matrix computer sheets was the secret to something.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • He thinks that it's, it's crabbed, it's too compressed in certain ways.

    Gregory B. Sadler - That Philosophy Guy

  • But his disapproval, displayed in that same precise, crabbed script, could take the ground from under my feet.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • Her crabbed handwriting made it challenging to read the important details on the page.

  • Despite its valuable information, the report was too crabbed to be useful for most readers.

Synonyms

garbled
vscrabbed
15 7.6

Speech or writing that is unclear and hard to understand

is hard to read because of cramped awkward or irregular style rather than disorder
unreadable
vscrabbed
14 4.1

Hard or impossible to read

is specifically hard to read due to cramped awkward or irregular style
illegible
vscrabbed
8 5.5

Hard to read because the writing is messy or the print is faded

is hard to read because of cramped awkward or irregular style
barely legible
vscrabbed
1 7.1

Very hard to read so you can only understand a little

is difficult to read from cramped awkward or irregular style yet partly clear

Antonyms

clear
∞ 1.0

Easy to understand and not confusing

legible
11 3.1

Clear enough to read easily, like handwriting or printed text

How Readable

clear
∞ 1.0
crabbed
  • Archaic
9.3
illegible
8 5.5

Surface Forms

crabbed positive
crabbeder comparative
crabbest superlative

Morphology

crabbed = crab (opaque) = crab + ed

Although morphologically 'crab' + -ed, the sense 'difficult to read' is a specialized extension applied to handwriting and is not derivable from the base meaning.

Etymology

Crabbed can also describe writing that is small, tight, or hard to follow; a helpful way to remember this is to imagine letters that are cramped and 'snappy' like a crab. So crabbed handwriting means 'difficult to read or understand'.