Green’s Dictionary of Slang

pugnacious, aggressive.

1890		Ironton Co. Register (MO) 10 Apr. 5/2: During the past two or three weeks this ‘neck of the woods’ has been somewhat ‘scrappy’, but I am glad to say that the war cloud has passed over.
1908		Chicago Trib. 8 Oct. in Fleming Unforgettable Season (1981) 310: The fleet-footed and scrappy shortstop.
1912		Van Loan ‘Loosening Up of Hogan’ in Ten-Thousand-Dollar Arm 132: The fans liked the scrappy aggregation.
1923		R. McAlmon Companion Volume 48: Don’t be so scrappy, sonny.
1935		F.S. Fitzgerald letter 11 May in Letters (1964) 264: It was fine seeing you but I was in a scrappy mood about Tom Wolfe.
1941		B. Schulberg What Makes Sammy Run? (1992) 99: All the instinct for self-preservation of a scrappy kitten.
1969		P. Theroux Murder in Mount Holly (1999) 36: His father certainly was a scrappy little guy.
1986		L. Heinemann Paco’s Story (1987) 68: They would credit their lives of good fortune [...] to their own selfish cleverness and scrappy grit.
1997		A. Highcrest At Home on the Stroll 192: When Sandy wasn’t high, she was scrappy and bitter.
2007		W. Ellis Crooked Little Vein 126: Aren’t we scrappy these days, Mr. McGill?
2022		G.M. Graff Watergate 233: The Nixon team was secretive and iced him out even before the Times imbroglio over the Pentagon Papers, leaving him to get scrappy to find information.