drib

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɹɪb/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪb

Etymology 1

From dialectal English drib (compare also drub), a variant from Middle English drepen (“to hit, strike, slay”), from Old English drepan (“to strike, kill, overcome”), from Proto-Germanic *drepaną (“to hit, strike”).

Verb

drib (third-person singular simple present dribs, present participle dribbing, simple past and past participle dribbed)

1. (transitive) To cut off; chop off.
2. (transitive) To cut off little by little; cheat by small and reiterated tricks; purloin.
3. (transitive) To entice step by step.
   • a. 1701, [John] Dryden, “Book I”, in Ovid, Ovid’s Art of Love. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson […], published 1709, →OCLC, page 32:

     With daily Lies ſhe dribs thee into Coſt; / That Ear-ring dropt a Stone, that Ring is loſt: / They often borrow what they never pay; / What e'er you lend her think it thrown away.

4. To appropriate unlawfully; to embezzle.
   • 1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, Charles Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Seventh Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: Printed for Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC:

     He who drives their bargains dribs a part.

5. (transitive, archery) To shoot directly at short range.
6. (intransitive, archery) To shoot at a mark at short range.
7. (transitive, archery) To shoot (a shaft) so as to pierce on the descent.
   • c. 1580s, Philip Sidney, “Astrophel and Stella”, in [Mary Sidney], editor, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia […] [The New Arcadia], 3rd edition, London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1598, →OCLC, sonnet 2, page 519:

     Not at first sight, nor with a dribbèd shot, / Love gave the wound […]

8. (transitive, now chiefly British, dialectal) To beat; thrash; drub.
9. (transitive, now chiefly British, dialectal) To scold.
10. (transitive, now chiefly British, dialectal, marbles) To strike another player's marble when playing from the trigger.

Etymology 2

From a variant of drip.

Noun

drib (plural dribs)

1. (obsolete) A drop.
   • a. 1772, Rupert Barber, An Answer to the Christmas-Box:

     squandering his money in dribs to the poor

Derived terms

• dribs and drabs

Anagrams

• Bird, bird