chicken scratch
Barely readable writing
Chicken scratch is handwriting so messy it's nearly illegible, resembling the random marks chickens leave scratching in dirt: I can't read his chicken scratch.
The term also describes the scattered marks themselves, or by extension, any crude scrawl or hasty notation.
Skill of forming letters
- scribbleWrite without care
- scrawlCareless, illegible writing
- scriptWritten words for performance
- longhandUnabbreviated handwriting
cursive · jotting · note · letter · signature · autograph · ink · pen
Careless, illegible writing
- unreadableCannot be deciphered
- messyLacking order or neatness
- sloppyCareless and untidy
- indecipherableImpossible to understand
unintelligible · incomprehensible · garbled · blurred · smudged · cramped · crooked · jagged
penmanship
Skill of forming letters
longhand · cursive · jotting · note · letter · signature · autograph · ink · pen · pencil
scrawl
Careless, illegible writing
- unreadableCannot be deciphered
- messyLacking order or neatness
- sloppyCareless and untidy
indecipherable · unintelligible · incomprehensible · garbled · blurred · smudged · cramped · crooked · jagged · untidy
squiggle
Irregular wavy mark
wiggly · loopy · angular · uneven · wobbly · zigzag · hieroglyphics · marks · lines · strokes
- farm idiomsmake hay while the sun shines, cream of the crop, put the cart before the horse, till the cows come home, buy the farm
- hard to readblurry text, illegible, faded print, blurred, smudged
- hard-to-read textscrawl, bad handwriting, faded text, scribbles
- needleworkcross-stitch, embroidery, embroidery hoop, embroidery hoops, needlepoint
- illegibilityscrawl, scribble, bad handwriting, gibberish, blur
- Scribblesdoodle, scrawl, scribble, squiggle
chicken, scratch, chick, scratchy, scratching, scratched, scratchiness, scratcher, unscratchable