Word.ws English Dictionary

dibs

/dɪbz/

dibs noun: the right to use or enjoy something exclusively or before anyone else. Also the plural of dib.

Noun (1)

dibs (uncountable)

  1. (informal) The right to use or enjoy something exclusively or before anyone else.
    • I call dibs on the hammock!
    • He called dibs on batting first.
    Synonyms:
    bags

Interjection

  1. (informal) Used to claim this right.

Verb

dibs (third-person singular simple present dibses, present participle dibsing, simple past and past participle dibsed)

  1. (informal) To claim a temporary right to (something); to reserve.
    Synonyms:
    bagsy, bags

Noun (2)

dibs (uncountable)

  1. (dated) A sweet preparation or treacle of grape juice, much used in the East.
    • Besides what is thus consumed, the village makes about 180,000 pounds of raisins , one third of which is for home consumption , and about 24,000 pounds of dibs, ( grape molasses , ) all of which is for home use1874, John William Kirton, The Temperance Hand-Book

Noun (3)

dibs

  1. (obsolete) A child's game, played with dib bones or stones, throwing them up from one's palm and catching them on the back of the hand.
  2. (archaic, slang) Money.
    • Get hold of the dibs, says he, and then you are bound to be right.1897, The Investors Review, volume 10, page 310

Noun (4) capitalized: DIBs

DIBs

  1. (plural) plural of DIB

Proper noun capitalized: Dibs

Dibs

  1. (plural) plural of Dib

Also used as

dibs is also the plural of dib.

Examples of dibs in a sentence

  • Who's got dibs on the chips?
  • Del Valle has the blessing of a garage, so he doesn't have to claim “dibs” on shoveled street spots himself, he said.2011 March 23, “We asked mayoral candidates: Do you support 'dibs' on parking spots?”, in Chicago Sun-Times:
  • It aims to give unionized California government workers "more workplace discipline protections and first dibs on state government work," as the Sacramento Bee put it.2012 February 16, “Our View: Public Employees Bill of Rights Act all wrong”, in Appeal-Democrat:

Synonyms of dibs

Forms of dibs

third-person singular presentdibses
present participledibsing
past participledibsed
pastdibsed

Origin of dibs

Since the early 19th century, of disputed origin. Most commonly thought to be from dibstones (“counters used in a game with the same name”). Also from dib (“to tap”) or related to northern English dip (“small depression in the ground”), or a shortened version of divide.

Borrowed from Arabic دِبْس (dibs).

Words formed from dibs

Words that rhyme with dibs

Questions about dibs

What does dibs mean?
Dibs means the right to use or enjoy something exclusively or before anyone else.
How do you use dibs in a sentence?
Who's got dibs on the chips?
What part of speech is dibs?
Dibs can be a noun, an interjection, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce dibs?
Dibs is pronounced /dɪbz/ (UK).

Words near dibs in the dictionary

  1. dibromoterfluorene
  2. dibromovinyl
  3. dibromovinyls
  4. dibrompropamidine
  5. Dibrugarh
  6. dibs
  7. dibsed
  8. dibses
  9. dibsing
  10. dibstone
  11. dibstones

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dibs (page history and authors); DIBs (page history and authors); Dibs (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-dibs.wav.

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