tribble

plural tribbles · alternative treble

1. A horizontal frame with wires stretched across it for drying paper.

plural tribbles

1. A fictional alien creature in Star Trek, a fast-breeding, cooing ball of fur.

   They breed like tribbles, but at least they’re not terrestrial.

   2015, Zanzibar 7. Schwarzenegger, Veneri Verbum, page 19

   3 more examples

   Scales have proliferated like tribbles in quadra-triticale: just intonations, equal temperaments, scales based on overtones, scales generated from a single interval or pair of intervals, scales without octaves, scales arising from arcane mathematical formulas, scales that reflect cosmological or religious structures, scales that "come from the heart."

   1998, William A. Sethares, Tuning, Timbre, Spectrum, Scale, page 49

   The Hyper-Producing Playwrights of Edmondton: Or Why Alberta’s Capital Breeds New Plays Like Tribbles.

   2008, Robin C. Whittaker, editor, Hot Thespian Action!, page 569

   They were like tribbles, multiplying by the dozens, cackling, giggling their maniacal joy at the game.

   2010, Dakota Cassidy, chapter 19, in Accidentally Demonic

plural Tribbles

1. A surname.

   Career diplomat Conrad Tribble said on Twitter that multiculturalism “is one of our greatest strengths as a country, and I go to that well often as an American diplomat. It’s hard to overstate the global soft power impact of America’s cultural diversity.”

   2021 January 19, Jennifer Hansler, Kylie Atwood and Nicole Gaouette, “Pompeo attacks multiculturalism, saying it is ‘not who America is’”, in CNN