adjective
crabbed
Cramped or difficult to decipher.
Her crabbed handwriting makes even a short note difficult to read.
Etymology
The crab supplied associations of crookedness and awkward movement. Crabbed developed a sense of being difficult or intricate, which applies to cramped writing that resists easy reading.
More examples
- We struggle to follow the contract's crabbed language.
- The recipe is written in crabbed letters along the margin.
- He slowly deciphers the crabbed notes in the old ledger.
Forms
crabbed
Similar words
- cramped
- Emphasizes tightly crowded letters rather than difficulty understanding language.
- illegible
- Means impossible or nearly impossible to read, regardless of spacing.
- convoluted
- Emphasizes complicated structure rather than the appearance of handwriting.