nibble

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See also: Nibble

English

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WOTD – 4 November 2024

Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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The verb is derived from Late Middle English nebillen, nebyll (“to peck away at (something), nibble; (figurative) to attempt to sing (a part of a song)”);[1] further etymology uncertain, possibly from Middle Low German nibbelen (“to eat in small bites, peck”) (modern German Low German nibbeln, gnibbeln, knibbeln), possibly a variant of knabbelen,[2] ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gnet- (“to press”) or imitative.

The noun is derived from the verb.[3]

cognates

Verb

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nibble (third-person singular simple present nibbles, present participle nibbling, simple past and past participle nibbled)

  1. (transitive)
    1. To take a small, quick bite, or several of such bites, of (something).
      Synonym: (chiefly Southern and Western England) nab
      The rabbit nibbled the lettuce.
    2. To lightly bite (a person or animal, or part of their body), especially in a loving or playful manner; to nip.
    3. To make (a hole in something) through small bites.
    4. To make (one's way) through or while taking small bites.
      Before he realized it, he had nibbled his way through a whole bag of potato chips.
      The cows nibbled their way across the field.
    5. Chiefly followed by into or to: to cause (something) to be in a certain state through small bites.
    6. Followed by away, off, etc.: to remove (something) through small bites.
      1. To remove (small pieces) from glass, tile, etc., with a tool; also, to remove small pieces from (glass, tile, etc.) with a tool.
    7. (obsolete)
      1. To fidget or play with (something), especially with the fingers or hands.
      2. (slang) To catch (someone); to nab.
      3. (slang) To steal (something); to pilfer.
  2. (intransitive)
    1. Chiefly followed by at, away, or on: to take a small, quick bite, or several of such bites; to eat (at frequent intervals) with small, quick bites.
      Synonyms: (obsolete) knabble, (chiefly Southern and Western England) nab, (Southern US) piddle
      The rabbit nibbled at the lettuce.
      • 1582, Richard Stanyhurst, “To the Right Honourable My Very Loving Brother the Lorde Baron of Dunsanye”, in Virgil, translated by Richard Stanyhurst, The First Foure Bookes of Virgils Æneis, […], London: Henrie Bynneman […], published 1583, →OCLC; republished as The First Four Books of the Æneid of Virgil, […], Edinburgh: [Edinburgh Printing Company], 1836, →OCLC, page xxvii:
        What deepe and rare pointes of hiddẽ [hidden] secrets Virgil hathe sealde vp in hys twelue bookes of Aeneis, maye easily appeare to such reaching wits, as bend their endeuours, to the vnfolding thereof; not only by gnibling vpon the outwarde rine of a supposed historie, but also by groaping the pyth, that is shrind vp within the barke and bodie of so exquisit and singular a discourse.
      • [1589], [John Lyly], “To the Father and the Two Sonnes, Huffe, Ruffe, and Snuffe, […]”, in Pappe with an Hatchet. Alias, A Figge for My God Sonne. […], London: […] Iohn Anoke, and Iohn Astile, for the Bayliue of Withernam [T. Orwin], […], →OCLC; republished as Pap with a Hatchet, London: John Petheram, […], 1844, →OCLC, pages 8–9:
        I doo but yet angle with a silken flye, to see whether Martins will nibble; and if I see that, why then I have wormes for the nonce, and will giue them line enough like a trowte, till they swallow both hooke and line, and then Martin beware your gilles, for Ile make you daunce at the poles end.
      • 1604 or 1605 (date written), Thomas Dekker, The Second Part of The Honest Whore, […], London: […] Elizabeth All-de, for Nathaniel Butter, published 1630, →OCLC, Act I, signature H2, verso:
        He vvill rob me, his teeth vvater to be nibbling at my gold, but this ſhal hang him by'th gills, till I pull him on ſhore.
      • 1608, Iohn Day [i.e., John Day], Humour out of Breath. A Comedie […], London: […] [Richard Bradock] for Iohn Helmes, […], →OCLC, Act I, signature [B3], verso:
        Go daughters vvith your Angels to the brooke, / And ſee if any ſiluer-coated fiſh, / VVill nibble at your vvorme-embovveld hooks: […]
      • 1644, J[ohn] M[ilton], “To the Parlament of England, with the Assembly”, in The Doctrine or Discipline of Divorce: […], 2nd edition, London: [s.n.], →OCLC:
        [L]et them play and nibble vvith the bait a vvhile; […]
      • 1668, [Robert Venables], “When to Provide Tools, and How to Make Them”, in The Experienced Angler: Or, Angling Improv’d. […], 3rd edition, London: […] Richard Marriot, […], →OCLC, page 6:
        [T]he Roach being a Fiſh that only nibbleth, if you ſtrike him not juſt in that very moment of his nibbling you vvill miſs him, […]
      • 1677 (first performance), John Dryden, “Preface”, in All for Love: Or, The World Well Lost. A Tragedy, […], [London]: […] Tho[mas] Newcomb, for Henry Herringman, […], published 1678, →OCLC, Act II:
        My comfort is, that by this opinion my Enemies are but ſucking Critiques, vvho vvou'd fain be nibbling ere their teeth are come.
      • 1785, William Cowper, “[Miscellaneous Poems.] The Needless Alarm. A Tale.”, in The Poetical Works of William Cowper. […], volume II, Edinburgh: James Nichol, […]; London: James Nisbet and Co. […], published 1854, →OCLC, page 95, lines 38–39:
        Sheep grazed the field; some with soft bosom press'd / The herb as soft, while nibbling stray'd the rest; […]
    2. To lightly bite, especially in a loving or playful manner.
      He nibbled at my neck and made me shiver.
    3. (figurative)
      1. Chiefly followed by at: to show slight interest in something, such as a commercial opportunity or a proposal.
      2. Followed by away at: to reduce or use up gradually; to eat.
        • 2011 May 11, Ann Carrns, “Prepaid cards subject jobless to host of fees”, in The New York Times‎[2], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2019-10-05:
          A report out this week from the National Consumer Law Center lays out a host of ways in which banks nibble away at jobless benefits with fees the center called "junk."
      3. (cricket, informal) Followed by at: of a batter: to make an indecisive attempt to bat a ball bowled outside the off stump.
      4. (road transport) Synonym of tramline (“of a vehicle: to tend to follow the contours of the ground with its wheels”)
    4. (obsolete)
      1. To fidget or play, especially with the fingers or hands.
        • 1577, Richard Stanyhurst [i.e., Richard Stanihurst], “[The Historie of Irelande […].] A Treatise Contayning a Playne and Perfect Description of Irelande, […].”, in Raphaell Holinshed, The Firste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande […], volume I, London: […] [Henry Bynneman] for Iohn Hunne, →OCLC, folio 14, recto, column 1:
          [S]he was with childe in hir huſbande his abſence, or that hir louer vſed hir fondly in open preſence, as the preſumption was not onely vehement, but alſo the fact too too apparent. Hir vnfortunat huſband had not ſooner notice gyuen him vpon his returne of theſe ſorowfull newes, then his fingers began to nibble, hys teeth to grinne, hys eyes to trickle, his eares to dindle, his heade to dezell, in ſomuch as his heart being ſkeared wyth ialouſie, & his wits enſtalde through Phrenſie, he became as madde, as a marche hare.
      2. Chiefly followed by at: to make insignificant complaints; to carp, to cavil, to find fault.
        Synonym: niggle
      3. (slang) To engage in sexual intercourse.
        Synonym: niggle
Conjugation
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Conjugation of nibble
infinitive (to) nibble
present tense past tense
1st-person singular nibble nibbled
2nd-person singular nibble, nibblest† nibbled, nibbledst†
3rd-person singular nibbles, nibbleth† nibbled
plural nibble
subjunctive nibble nibbled
imperative nibble —
participles nibbling nibbled

†Archaic or obsolete.

Derived terms
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Translations
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Noun

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nibble (plural nibbles)

  1. An act of taking a small, quick bite, or several of such bites, especially with the front teeth; the bite or bites so taken.
  2. A light bite of a person or animal, or part of their body, especially one which is loving or playful; a nip.
  3. A amount of food that is or can be taken into the mouth through a small bite; a small mouthful.
  4. (figurative) A slight show of interest in something, such as a commercial opportunity or a proposal.
  5. (obsolete, rare) Grass or other vegetation eaten by livestock; forage, pasturage.
Derived terms
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Translations
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Etymology 2

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A pun on the homophony of byte and bite.[3]

Noun

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nibble (plural nibbles)

  1. (computing) A unit of memory equal to half a byte, or chiefly four bits.
    • 1978 May 22, William B. Adams, “Letters to the Editor: Query on Abacus”, in E. Drake Lundell Jr., editor, Computerworld: The Newsweekly for the Computer Community, volume XII, number 21, Newton, Mass.: CW Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 26, column 4:
      I own several abaci and two books on how to use them, but they all have four counters below the bar and one counter above it. […] The bottom four counters of each abacus can be used to represent a "nybble," and the upper counter on each can be used for parity.
    • 1983 June, Steve Ciarcia, “Ciarcia’s Circuit Cellar: Use ADPCM for Highly Intelligible Speech Synthesis”, in Lawrence J. Curran, editor, Byte: The Small Systems Journal, volume 8, number 6, Peterborough, N.H.: Byte Publications, McGraw-Hill, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 41, column 1:
      At every negative-going transition it reads a 4-bit ADPCM nybble (there are 2 nybbles per byte) and stores it in a memory-resident table.
    • 1985, Ronald C. Emery, “General Sequential Circuitry”, in Digital Circuits: Logic and Design (Electrical Engineering and Electronics; 25), New York, N.Y.; Basel, Basel-Stadt: Marcel Dekker, →ISBN, page 171:
      Data is being received by a system in serial sequences of four bit nybbles. (A nybble is usually defined as a four bit grouping.) […] Our mission, should we decide to accept it, is to test each nybble and determine whether or not the four bits constitute a valid BCD (8421) number.
    • 1991 September, W. Rick Smith, Greg L[ynn] Somers, “Photographing, Scanning, and Editing an Image”, in SUNSHINE: A Light Environment Simulation System Based on Hemispherical Photographs (Research Paper SO-267), New Orleans, La.: Southern Forest Experiment Station, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, →OCLC, page 2, column 2:
      Each pixel has an integer gray scale value associated with it to indicate its shade of gray. […] Gray scale values can be stored in either 4 bits (nibble) or 8 bits (byte).
    • 1993, Richard E. Haskell, Introduction to Computer Engineering: Logic Design and the 8086 Microprocessor, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, →ISBN, page 287:
      That is, the lower nibble (the 4 bits 1010 = A) has been masked to zero.
    • 2005, Clive “MAX” Maxfield, Alvin Brown, The Definitive Guide to How Computers Do Math […], Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley-Interscience, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 20:
      Similarly, it's easy to convert a binary number such as %1100011010110010 into its hexadecimal equivalent. All we have to do is to split the binary value into 4-bit nybbles and to map each nybble onto its corresponding hexadecimal digit.
    • 2006, A. K. Singh, Manish Tiwari, Arun Prakash, Digital Principles Switching Theory, New Delhi: New Age International, →ISBN, pages 15–16:
      A nibble is a collection of four bits. It wouldn't be a particularly interesting data structure except for two items: BCD (binary coded decimal) numbers and hexadecimal numbers. It takes four bits to represent a single BCD or hexadecimal digit. With a nibble, one can represent up to 16 distinct values. […] [H]exadecimal and BCD digits are the primary items we can represent with a single nibble.
    • 2016, Giuseppe Di Cataldo, “Base 2, 8, and 16 Notations”, in Stack Frames: A Look from Inside, New York, N.Y.: Apress, Springer Science+Business Media, →DOI, →ISBN, page 47:
      Each half [of a byte], a group of four consecutive bits, called a semibyte or nibble, is represented by a unique hexadecimal digit; for instance: 00101101 = 0x2D. The high nibble contains the most-significant four bits: 0010 = 0x2. The low nibble contains the least-significant four bits: 1101 = 0xD.
Usage notes
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A nibble is now universally regarded as equivalent to four bits, but historically it was sometimes equivalent to other numbers of bits.[4]

Alternative forms
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Translations
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References

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  1. ^ “nebillen, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. ^ “nibble, v.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, September 2024; “nibble, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 “nibble, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2024; “nibble, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  4. ^ Denis Howe (1985–) “nibble”, in Free On-line Dictionary of Computing.

Further reading

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Portuguese

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Etymology

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Unadapted borrowing from English nibble.

Noun

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nibble m (plural nibbles)

  1. (computing) nibble (half a byte)
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