scrabble
scrabble around
scrabble about

He had to scrabble about in his brain for awhile to figure out where he was.

His hand scrabbled about, feeling frantically for the monkey's paw.

You can see the transformation when a spinning top, as it runs down, scrabbles about on its side.

She lay on her front and scrabbled about in the sand.

She could hear the man scrabbling about and swearing, evidently looking for his flashlight.

Tyrus could hear him scrabbling about at the edge of the light's range.

Grampa began to scrabble about, trying to get a purchase to arise.

People were scrabbling about, moving without purpose in every direction, movement just for the sake of movement.

She scrabbled about in the pile of papers she'd printed off the Internet.

Tinker scrabbled about in a little dark space under the lamp.