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BMO Posted 21 years ago
Vocabulary

Scramble and scrabble

Scramble for a living and scrabble for a living, are they the same?

Thanks.

bmo
  

Top answer

Do you mean to struggle for a living? "Scramble for something" implies a competition, so I guess to scramble for a living means to compete with other people to earn money. "Scrabble for something" means to struggle desperately to get something.

— LanguageLover

  • Do you mean to struggle for a living?
  • "Scramble for something" implies a competition, so I guess to scramble for a living means to compete with other people to earn money.
  • "Scrabble for something" means to struggle desperately to get something.
  • I think this stuggle is not limited to the competition-like situations.
  • Let's wait for the native speakers and shall see ....
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3 Answers
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Do you mean to struggle for a living? "Scramble for something" implies a competition, so I guess to scramble for a living means to compete with other people to earn money. "Scrabble for something" means to struggle desperately to get something. I think this stuggle is not limited to the competition-like situations. Let's wait for the native speakers and shall see ....
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In the old phrase scrabble for a living, the meaning that is generally meant is:

"To struggle by or as if by scraping or groping"-- that is, working for almost nothing, as at menial labour; just barely getting by.


On the other hand, the definition I would select for 'scramble' in scramble for a living would be:

"To struggle or contend frantica
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Thank you both, appreciated.

Can I say,

Scramble for a living,

Scrabble for a living

Struggle for a living, and

Scrape for a living,

are all about the same? But scrub for a living would literally mean scrubbing the floor as a job to earn a living, right?

bmo
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