SCRIBE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Scribe mean? 

• SCRIBE (noun)
  The noun SCRIBE has 4 senses:

1. French playwright (1791-1861)

2. informal terms for journalists

3. someone employed to make written copies of documents and manuscripts

4. a sharp-pointed awl for marking wood or metal to be cut

  Familiarity information: SCRIBE used as a noun is uncommon.

• SCRIBE (verb)
  The verb SCRIBE has 1 sense:

1. score a line on with a pointed instrument, as in metalworking

  Familiarity information: SCRIBE used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SCRIBE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

French playwright (1791-1861)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

Augustin Eugene Scribe; Scribe

Instance hypernyms:

dramatist; playwright (someone who writes plays)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Informal terms for journalists

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

penman; scribbler; scribe

Hypernyms ("scribe" is a kind of...):

journalist (a writer for newspapers and magazines)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Someone employed to make written copies of documents and manuscripts

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

copyist; scribe; scrivener

Hypernyms ("scribe" is a kind of...):

employee (a worker who is hired to perform a job)

Instance hyponyms:

Ezra (a Jewish priest and scribe sent by the Persian king to restore Jewish law and worship in Jerusalem)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A sharp-pointed awl for marking wood or metal to be cut

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

scratch awl; scribe; scriber

Hypernyms ("scribe" is a kind of...):

awl (a pointed tool for marking surfaces or for punching small holes)

Derivation:

scribe (score a line on with a pointed instrument, as in metalworking)

• SCRIBE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they scribe    ... he / she / it scribes   
Past simple: scribed   
Past participle: scribed   
-ing form: scribing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Score a line on with a pointed instrument, as in metalworking

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "scribe" is one way to...):

mark; nock; score (make small marks into the surface of)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

scribe; scriber (a sharp-pointed awl for marking wood or metal to be cut)

 Context examples 

You must be scribe and write him all down, so that when the others return from their work you can give it to them; then they shall know as we do.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Oh, brother scribe Macdona, what a monstrous opening sentence!

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The bitter check had wrung from me some tears; and now, as I sat poring over the crabbed characters and flourishing tropes of an Indian scribe, my eyes filled again.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

He then commanded six-and-thirty of the lads, to read the several lines softly, as they appeared upon the frame; and where they found three or four words together that might make part of a sentence, they dictated to the four remaining boys, who were scribes.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)