fribble
/ˈfɹɪbəl/
fribble verb: to waste or fritter.
Verb
fribble (third-person singular simple present fribbles, present participle fribbling, simple past and past participle fribbled)
- To waste or fritter.
- To behave in a frivolous way.
- The parish districts--and especially their lady visitors--declared that they were neglected; the rector never got a quiet cup of tea in his own house, nor even a quiet placid moment; for the sounds of young people laughing and, as Mrs. Fretchett called it, "fribbling" upstairs would float down to...1897, Stanley John Weyman, “Archdeacon Hodden's Tribulation”, in For the Cause
- We dried in the sun on a boulder as warm as a dying stove, and fribbled and monkeyed with each other, priming for later.1984, Guy Davenport, Apples and Pears
- To totter.
Adjective
fribble (comparative more fribble, superlative most fribble)
- Of little or no importance, frivolous.
Noun
fribble (plural fribbles)
- A trifling action.
- A trifler.
- A frivolous, contemptible fellow; a fop.
- The plot of the piece was quite a new one. A young woman was repreſented with a great number of ſuitors, ſelecting a pert fribble of a peer, in place of the hero; […]1852, William Makepeace Thackeray, “A Paper out of The Spectator”, in The History of Henry Esmond, Esq. […] , volume III, London: […] Smith, Elder, & Company, […], →OCLC, page 68
- Synonyms:
- dandyling, popinjay, barbermonger, beau, blade, blood, buck, carpet knight, cockscomb, dandy
Synonyms of fribble
- dandyling
- popinjay
- carpet knight
- dandy
- dood
- fashionable
- fast man
- fine gentleman
- fop
- gallant
29 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of fribble
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | fribbles |
| present participle | fribbling |
| past participle | fribbled |
| past | fribbled |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more fribble |
| superlative | most fribble |
| Noun | |
| plural | fribbles |
Origin of fribble
Perhaps related to frivol.
Words formed from fribble
Questions about fribble
- What does fribble mean?
- Fribble means to waste or fritter.
- What part of speech is fribble?
- Fribble can be a verb, an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce fribble?
- Fribble is pronounced /ˈfɹɪbəl/.
- What is the past tense of fribble?
- The past tense of fribble is fribbled.
Words near fribble in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: fribble (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-fribble.wav.
Cite this entry: “fribble.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fribble. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.