%ribble%

v. t. To scribble over. “Bescribbled with impertinences.” Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Cribbled p. pr. & vb. n. Cribbling ] [ Cf. F. cribler. ] To cause to pass through a sieve or riddle; to sift. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Coarse; as, cribble bread. [ Obs. ] Huloet. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. crible, LL. criblus sieve, fr. L. cribrum. ] 1. A coarse sieve or screen. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Coarse flour or meal. [ Obs. ] Johnson. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Dribbled p. pr. & vb. n. Dribbing ] [ Freq. of drib, which is a variant of drip. ] 1. To fall in drops or small drops, or in a quick succession of drops; as, water dribbles from the eaves. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To slaver, as a child or an idiot; to drivel. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To fall weakly and slowly. [ Obs. ] “The dribbling dart of love.” Shak. (Meas. for Meas. , i. 3, 2). [ Perhaps an error for dribbing. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

4. In basketball, football and similar games, to dribble{ 2 } the ball. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

5. To live or pass one's time in a trivial fashion. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

v. t. 1. To let fall in drops. [ 1913 Webster ]

Let the cook . . . dribble it all the way upstairs. Swift. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. In basketball and various other games, to propel (the ball) by successive slight hits or kicks so as to keep it always in control. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. 1. A drizzling shower; a falling or leaking in drops. [ Colloq. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

2. An act of dribbling{ 2 } a ball. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. One who dribbles.

{ } n. [ From Dribble. ] A small piece or part; a small sum; a small quantity of money in making up a sum; as, the money was paid in dribblets. [ 1913 Webster ]

When made up in dribblets, as they could, their best securities were at an interest of twelve per cent. Burke. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Cf. F. frivole, L. frivolus, or E. frippery. ] Frivolous; trifling; silly. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A frivolous, contemptible fellow; a fop. [ 1913 Webster ]

A pert fribble of a peer. Thackeray. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. 1. To act in a trifling or foolish manner; to act frivolously. [ 1913 Webster ]

The fools that are fribbling round about you. Thackeray. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To totter. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A trifler; a fribble. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. Prov. E. grib to bite. ] (Zool.) A small marine isopod crustacean (Limnoria lignorum or Limnoria terebrans), which burrows into and rapidly destroys submerged timber, such as the piles of wharves, both in Europe and America. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ Cf. Scrabble. ] (Woolen Manuf.) To card coarsely; to run through the scribbling machine. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Hasty or careless writing; a writing of little value; a scrawl; as, a hasty scribble. Boyle. [ 1913 Webster ]

Neither did I but vacant seasons spend
In this my scribble. Bunyan. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To write without care, elegance, or value; to scrawl. [ 1913 Webster ]

If Maevius scribble in Apollo's spite. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Scribbled p. pr. & vb. n. Scribbling ] [ From Scribe. ] 1. To write hastily or carelessly, without regard to correctness or elegance; as, to scribble a letter. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To fill or cover with careless or worthless writing. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A scribble. [ R. ] Foster. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who scribbles; a petty author; a writer of no reputation; a literary hack. [ 1913 Webster ]

The scribbler, pinched with hunger, writes to dine. Granville. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A scribbling machine. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Triple; treble; threefold. [ Prov. Eng. or Colloq. ] Halliwell. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A transcriber; -- used in contempt. [ 1913 Webster ]

He [ Aristotle ] has suffered vastly from the transcribblers, as all authors of great brevity necessarily must. Gray. [ 1913 Webster ]