Verb: To kidnap or capture. In particular to throw a bag or cloth over the
head and bundle the victim away.
The term was coined by John Masefield in "The Midnight Folk", published in 1827, and is used extensively in the "
Box of Delights", published in 1937, where Cole Hawlings is 'scrobbled' by throwing a black bag over his
head and bundling him into a car.
Neil Gaiman also used scrobbling in the same sense in “Neverwhere”, published in 1996. Gaiman acknowledges the
Box of Delights as the origin of the word.
"... Kay are waiting to scrobble the treacherous
cats" Midnight
Folk"We have no intention of violating their market truce. More of waiting till she has
left the market and scrobbling her ..." Mr Croup - Neverwhere