sprachle verb to move in a laboriously or in a hasty, clumsy way (especially upwards), clamber; (especially to get out of or through something), flounder about, sprawl: ...and the old man sprachled in his hands and knees and crawled up on to the shingle on the shore... la18-. etymology: Scots; origin obscure; the earliest form is sprackle; perhaps a Scandinavian root Old Norse sprakla ‘to sprawl, kick about with the feet’; attested by DW |