SCRAMBLE

I. verb (~d; scrambling) Etymology: perhaps alteration of 1scrabble Date: 1568 intransitive verb 1. to move with urgency or panic, to move or climb hastily on all fours, 2. to struggle eagerly or unceremoniously for possession of something , to get or gather something with difficulty or in irregular ways , to spread or grow irregularly ; sprawl , straggle , to take off quickly in response to an alert, to run with the ball after the pass protection breaks down, transitive verb to collect by scrambling, 2. to toss or mix together ; jumble , to prepare (eggs) by stirring during frying, to cause or order (a fighter-interceptor group) to ~, to disarrange the elements of a transmission (as a telephone or television signal) in order to make unintelligible to interception, ~r noun II. noun Date: 1648 the act or an instance of scrambling, a disordered mass ; jumble , a rapid emergency takeoff of fighter-interceptor planes