Word.ws English Dictionary

dibble

Syllables: dib·bleUK/ˈdɪb(ə)l/

dibble noun: a pointed implement used to make holes in the ground in which to set out plants or to plant seeds.

dibble: a pointed implement used to make holes in the ground in which to set out plants or to plant seeds
Image: Pearson Scott Foresman, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

dibble (plural dibbles)

  1. A pointed implement used to make holes in the ground in which to set out plants or to plant seeds.
    • Pol[ixenes] Then make you[r] Garden rich in Gilly'vors, / And do not call them baſtards. / Per[dita] Ile not put / The Dible in earth, to ſet one ſlip of them: […]c. 1610–1611, William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies, London: Printed by Isaac...
    • Earth'd up, here lies an imp o' hell, / Planted by Satan's dibble— / Poor silly wretch, he's damned himsel', / To save the Lord the trouble.1794, Robert Burns, Allan Cunningham, “LX. On a Suicide.”, in The Works of Robert Burns; with His Life, by Allan Cunningham. … In Eight Volumes, volume III, London: James Cochrane and Co. 11...
    Synonyms:
    dibbler, dibber, dib

Verb

dibble (third-person singular simple present dibbles, present participle dibbling, simple past and past participle dibbled)

  1. (transitive) To make holes or plant seeds using, or as if using, a dibble.
    • And as in winter, when the frost breaks up, / At winter's end, before the spring begins, / And a warm west wind blows, and thaw sets in— / After an hour a dripping sound is heard / In all the forests, and the soft-strewn snow / Under the trees is dibbled thick with holes, / And from the boughs the...1855, Matthew Arnold, “Balder Dead. An Episode. [3. Funeral.]”, in Poems. By Matthew Arnold. Second Series, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC, page 58
    • It was Digory who had the bright idea of eating four each and planting the ninth; for, as he said, "if the bar off the lamp-post turned into a little light-tree, why shouldn’t this turn into a toffee-tree?" So they dibbled a small hole in the turf and buried the piece of toffee.1955, C[live] S[taples] Lewis, chapter 12, in The Magician's Nephew (The Chronicles of Narnia; 1), London: The Bodley Head, →OCLC; republished London: Collins, 1998
    Synonyms:
    dib
  2. (intransitive) To use a dibble; to make holes in the soil.
    • There is another method of ſowing wheat in rows uſed in ſome counties, which is termed dibbling in the language of agricultors, and consiſts in making perpendicular holes one inch and half or two inches deep, as is commonly done in planting potato-roots; theſe holes are made by a man, who has a...1800, Erasmus Darwin, “Section XVI.[2.2.] The Production of Seeds.”, in Phytologia; or the Philosophy of Agriculture and Gardening. With the Theory of Draining Morasses, and with an Improved...
    • I would as soon be gored by my ain bull that gangs on Dalmakittenleys, as have ill luck, and sorrow, and mischance, drilled and dibbled into my frail body by the spiteful een of an auld hag.1826, Allan Cunningham, “chapter III”, in Paul Jones; A Romance. … In Three Volumes, volume II, Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd; London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, & Green, →OCLC, page 66
    Synonyms:
    dib
  3. (intransitive) To dib or dip frequently, as in angling.
    • And neere to them ye see the lesser dibling Teale1622, Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion, song 25 p. 106
    • Natural fly-fishing, which comes under the heads of dibbling, daping and dabbing, is a method with which the largest fish are taken, and requires a deal of nicety and circumspection. The general rule in this way of angling is to fish with a line about half the length of your rod; but if there is...1787, Thomas Best, “Of Natural Fly-fishing, with a Description of Flies Generally Used, and a Choice Collection of Rules and Hints to be Observed in the Art of Angling”, in A Concise Treatise on the...

Noun (2)

dibble (countable and uncountable, plural dibbles)

  1. (UK, countable, slang) A police officer, especially one serving with Greater Manchester Police.
    • Remember this story about police hunting a metal detector enthusiast suspected of digging 20 holes in a school playing field in Cornwall? It’s taken a rather unusual twist. Pop superstar Robbie Williams appears to have ’fessed up to the crime. The former Take That star, who is a keen metal...2016 May 12, “maxc73”, “Robbie Williams ‘confesses’ to digging holes in school’s playing field”, in The Herald, Plymouth, Devon, archived from the original on 16 Mar 2017
    Synonyms:
    police officer
  2. (UK, slang, uncountable) Preceded by the: the police.
    • Watch out, lads! Here comes the dibble!
    • In Moss Side they called the police Dibble, after Officer Dibble in the cartoon Top Cat, so the name had sprung from that.2002, Colin Ward, 'Chubby' Chris Henderson, “Revelling in It”, in Who Wants It?, Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing, →ISBN

Proper noun capitalized: Dibble

Dibble

  1. A surname originating as a patronymic.

Examples of dibble in a sentence

  • In sowing time ne'er would I dibble take, / Or drop a seed, till thou wast wide awake; […]1818, John Keats, Endymion: A Poetic Romance, London: Printed for Taylor and Hessey, 93, Fleet Street, →OCLC, book III, page 112, lines...
  • Bein' in the dibble [police] is no cakewalk when you're black. / If you don't get fitted, then you'll prob'ly get the sack.2008, Theodore Dalrymple [pseudonym; Anthony Malcolm Daniels], “How Not to Do It”, in Not with a Bang but a Whimper: The Politics and...
  • I was sitting in the sweatbox, wondering how the Dibble had got onto me so quickly, when I heard a voice from another section of the van say, 'Are you P from Macclesfield?'2013, Colin Blaney, Hotshot: The Story of a Little Red Devil:

Synonyms of dibble

All synonyms of dibble

Forms of dibble

Noun
pluraldibbles
Verb
third-person singular presentdibbles
present participledibbling
past participledibbled
pastdibbled

Origin of dibble

Possibly dib (“to dab lightly”) + -le (frequentative suffix indicating repetition or continuousness); however, the word dibble is attested earlier than dib.

From the character of Officer Charlie Dibble, a New York Police Department officer, in the Hanna-Barbera cartoon series Top Cat (first broadcast in the US in 1961, and in the UK in 1962 under the title Boss Cat).

From a Middle English form of the given name Theobald.

Words formed from dibble

Words that rhyme with dibble

4 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about dibble

What does dibble mean?
Dibble means a pointed implement used to make holes in the ground in which to set out plants or to plant seeds.
How do you use dibble in a sentence?
In sowing time ne'er would I dibble take, / Or drop a seed, till thou wast wide awake; […]
What part of speech is dibble?
Dibble can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce dibble?
Dibble is pronounced /ˈdɪb(ə)l/ (UK).
What is the plural of dibble?
The plural of dibble is dibbles.

Words near dibble in the dictionary

  1. Dibbens
  2. dibber
  3. dibbers
  4. dibbing
  5. Dibbins
  6. dibble
  7. dibbled
  8. dibbler
  9. dibblers
  10. dibbles
  11. dibbling

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dibble (page history and authors); Dibble (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-dibble.ogg.

Cite this entry: “dibble.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dibble. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.