Scrambled

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Mixed up into a confused or disordered arrangement or sequence ; prepared by beating eggs and cooking them until firm but still soft
2. Put into a disorderly or confusing state, losing an original order or clarity ; eggs cooked after beating them until combined
3. Thrown into a state of disorder or confusion by rearranging elements randomly ; eggs beaten together and gently cooked to a soft solid consistency

Etymology: The past tense of "scramble" carries two senses that seem unrelated: a jumbled heap, and a plate of eggs stirred together in a pan. Its ancestry is uncertain. One proposal links it to an older dialect verb meaning to rake or gather things together with the hands, a verb probably built on a root meaning to pull or scrape together, with a frequentative ending that signals repeated action. Another proposal traces it to a nasalised form of "scrabble," meaning to scrape or scratch quickly at something. Dutch "schrammen," meaning to graze or scratch, is sometimes compared as a relative. Both proposals point to the same picture: hands clawing at a pile of objects. Rummaging through a heap quickly and without order produces disarrangement, which explains the sense of things mixed into confusion. Stirring eggs in a pan works the same way, churning the yolk and white together until they lose their separate forms.

Synonyms: mixed, jumbled, disordered, confused, shuffled

Antonyms: ordered, arranged, organized