drabble

D2R1A1B3B3L1E1
/ˈdɹæbəl/

verb

To wet or dirty, especially by dragging through mud.

“to drabble for barbels”

UncommonScrabble 12

Meanings

drabble1

verbdrabble (third-person singular simple present drabbles, present participle drabbling, simple past and past participle drabbled)

present singular third person drabbles · participle present drabbling · participle past drabbled · past drabbled

  1. transitiveTo wet or dirty, especially by dragging through mud.
    1 more example

    That which eſpecialleſt nouriſht the moſt prime pleaſure in me, was after a ſtorme when they were driuen inſwarmes, and lay close peſtred together as thicke as they could packe; the next day following, if it were faire, they would cloud the whole skie with canuas, by ſpreading their drabled ſailes in the full clue abroad a drying, and make a brauer ſhew with them, then ſo many banners and ſtreamers diſplayed againſt the Sunne on a mountaine top.

    1599, [Thomas] Nashe, Nashes Lenten Stuffe, […], London: […] [Thomas Judson and Valentine Simmes] for N[icholas] L[ing] and C[uthbert] B[urby] […], →OCLC, pages 5–6
  2. intransitiveTo fish with a long line and rod.

    to drabble for barbels

drabble2

noundrabble (plural drabbles)

plural drabbles

  1. A short fictional story, typically in fan fiction, sometimes exactly 100 words long.

    Synonyms: flash fiction, flashfic, microfiction, short short story, spamfic, sudden fiction

Drabble3

proper nounDrabble (plural Drabbles)

plural Drabbles

  1. A surname from Old English.

Synonyms & antonyms

nounA short fictional story, typically in fan fiction, sometimes exactly 100 words long.

Origin

drabble · verb

  1. Middle Englishdrabelan
  2. Middle Englishdrabelan
  3. Englishdrabble

Inherited from Middle English drabelan.

Full word history & related roots →

drabble · noun

From a game in Monty Python's Big Red Book in which the first player to write a novel wins; possibly derived in turn from the surname of the author Margaret Drabble.

Full word history & related roots →

Drabble · proper noun

Perhaps a diminutive of the Old English personal name Drabba, or related to drab, hence a nickname for an untidy person.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Finnish raapale
  • raapaleshort story
Russian драббл
  • драббл (drabbl)short story

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with drabble

All rhymes →

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

drabble. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/drabble

MLA

“drabble.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/drabble. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “drabble,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/drabble.

Source: drabble on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.