nibble

What it means

1. transitiveTo take a small, quick bite, or several of such bites, of (something).

   The rabbit nibbled the lettuce.

   5 more examples

   His little Goats gan driue out of their ſtalls, / To feede abroad, vvhere paſture beſt befalls. / […] / Some clambring through the hollovv cliffes on hy, / Nibble the buſhie ſhrubs, vvhich grovve thereby.

   1591, Ed[mund] Sp[enser], “Virgils Gnat”, in Complaints. Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie. […], London: […] William Ponsonbie, […], →OCLC, signature H2, verso

   I then nibbled all the red wax of our last ball-tickets, […]

   1712 July 25 (Gregorian calendar), [Richard Steele], “MONDAY, July 15, 1712”, in The Spectator, number 431; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume V, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page 130

   Dire Ills, it ſeems! their Gods denounce in Rage; / And Garlick only, can their Gods aſſvvage. / Thrice then, each Morn, (for thrice the Povvers direct) / Garlick thou nibbleſt, vvith devout Reſpect.

   1751, Persius, “The Fifth Satire of Persius”, in [Thomas Brewster], transl., The Satires of Persius Translated into English Verse: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, page 123, lines 395–398

   A silent space with ever sprouting green. / All the tenderest birds there find a pleasant screen, / Creep through the shade with jaunty fluttering, / Nibble the little cupped flowers and sing.

   1816 (date written), John Keats, “Sleep and Poetry”, in Poems, London: […] [Charles Richards] for C[harles] & J[ames] Ollier, […], published 3 March 1817, →OCLC; reprinted in Poems (The Noel Douglas Replicas), London: Noel Douglas, 1927, →OCLC, page 113

   Where every stream in its pent-house / Goes gurgling on its way, / And in his gallery the mouse / Nibbleth the meadow hay; […]

   1843 October, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, “A Winter Walk”, in [Ralph Waldo Emerson; Sophia Thoreau], editors, Excursions, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, published 1863, →OCLC, page 125

   Synonyms: nab

2. transitiveTo lightly bite (a person or animal, or part of their body), especially in a loving or playful manner; to nip.

   My hand, as it hangs down, thou nibblest tenderly, […]

   1837, Alphonse de Lamartine, “Ninth Epoch”, in F[rances] H[enrietta] Jobert, transl., Jocelyn: An Episode […], Paris: Baudry, […], →OCLC, page 350

   1 more example

   Social animals perform many little services for each other: horses nibble, and cows lick each other, on any spot which itches: […]

   1871, Charles Darwin, “Comparison of the Mental Powers of Man and the Lower Animals—continued”, in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. […], volume I, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, Part I (On the Descent of Man), pages 74–75

3. transitiveTo make (a hole in something) through small bites.

In a sentence

The rabbit nibbled the lettuce.

Where it comes from

1. Proto-Indo-European*gnet-“to press”
2. Middle Low Germannibbelen“to eat in small bites, peck”
3. Middle Englishnebillen
4. Englishnibble

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)”); 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, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gnet- (“to press”) or imitative. The noun is derived from the verb. Cognates * Middle Dutch cnibbelen (modern Dutch knibbelen (“to gnaw; to murmur”), nibbelen (“to nibble”)) * Saterland Frisian nibje (“to nibble”) * West Frisian knibbelje