fibre

plural fibres · alternative fiber

1. countableA single piece of a given material, elongated and roughly round in cross-section, often twisted with other fibres to form thread.

   The microscope showed several different fibres stuck to the sole of the shoe.

2. uncountableMaterial in the form of fibres.

   The cloth was made from strange, somewhat rough fibre.

3. countableuncountableDietary fibre.

   Fresh vegetables are a good source of fibre.

4. countableuncountableMoral strength and resolve.

   The ordeal was a test of everyone’s fibre.

   1 more example

   He was gentlemanly, steady, tractable, with a thorough knowledge of his duties; and in time, when yet very young, he became chief mate of a fine ship, without ever having been tested by those events of the sea that show in the light of day the inner worth of a man, the edge of his temper, and the fibre of his stuff; that reveal the quality of his resistance and the secret truth of his pretences, not only to others but also to himself.

   1900, Joseph Conrad, chapter 2, in Lord Jim

5. countableuncountablemathematicsThe preimage of a given point in the range of a map.

   Under this map, any two values in the fibre of a given point on the circle differ by 2π.

6. countableuncountablecategory theorySaid to be of a morphism over a global element: The pullback of the said morphism along the said global element.
7. countableuncountablecomputingA kind of lightweight thread of execution.
8. countableuncountablebiologyA long tubular cell found in bodily tissue.

   It is the deeper parts of such cells which give rise to delicate muscular fibres or networks of fibres, while the superficially placed body of the cell myoblast), the part which produces the above, performs other functions, and usually bears a cilium.

   1892, Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Claus, edited by F. G. Heathcote, Elementary Text-book of Zoology