scuffle

Meanings

1. A rough, disorderly fight or struggle at close quarters.
2. Poverty; struggle.
3. A child's pinafore or bib.

1. To fight or struggle confusedly at close quarters.
2. To walk with a shuffling gait.
3. To make a living with difficulty, getting by on a low income, to struggle financially.

1. A type of hoe, manipulated by both pushing and pulling, with a sharp blade parallel with the worked surface; an instance of this type.

1. To work the soil surface for weeding, etc.

Etymology

Possibly of North Germanic/Scandinavian origin; compare Swedish skuff (“a push”) and skuffa (“to push”), from the Proto-Germanic base *skuf- (skuƀ), from Proto-Indo-European *skewbʰ-, see also Lithuanian skùbti (“to hurry”), Polish skubać (“to pluck”), Albanian humb (“to lose”).