Word.ws English Dictionary

gribble

/ˈɡɹɪ.bəl/

gribble noun: any of various wood-boring marine crustaceans of the genus Limnoria, especially Limnoria lignorum, which cause damage to underwater wooden structures.

gribble: any of various wood-boring marine crustaceans of the genus Limnoria, especially Limnoria lignorum,...
Image: Augusta Foote Arnold, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

gribble (plural gribbles)

  1. Any of various wood-boring marine crustaceans of the genus Limnoria, especially Limnoria lignorum, which cause damage to underwater wooden structures.

Adjective

gribble (comparative more gribble, superlative most gribble)

  1. (Bermuda) Tending to grumble; grumpy, irascible.
    • You're always gribble first thing in the morning.1984, Peter A. Smith, Fred M. Barritt, Bermewjan Vurds, Island Press

Noun (2)

gribble (plural gribbles)

  1. (Devon, UK, in plural) A piece of deep-fried batter left over from frying fish, sometimes sold with chips.
    • The study also reveals that Wigan likely calls excess batter bits ‘Scraps’ or ‘Bits’, compared to the south west and east of the UK who are more likely to order ‘Gribbles’ or ‘Scrumps’.[2020 September 4, Ben Butler, “REVEALED: UK’s brutal verdict on these Wigan chip-shop favourites”, in Wigan Today
    • Margaret also played her part in filling our hungry mouths by working at the local fish and chip shop in the village and by bringing home all the leftovers which we devoured ravenously—gribbles, the odd faggot etc. etc.—delicious.2023, Sheila M. Hutchings, Humble Beginnings, →ISBN
    Synonyms:
    scrap, scratching

Proper noun capitalized: Gribble

IPA/ˈɡɹɪbəl/

Gribble

  1. A surname.

Synonyms of gribble

Forms of gribble

Noun
pluralgribbles
Adjective
comparativemore gribble
superlativemost gribble

Origin of gribble

Uncertain. Compare grub, from Proto-Germanic *grub- (“to dig”).

Possibly related to grumble.

Uncertain.

Words that rhyme with gribble

4 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about gribble

What does gribble mean?
Gribble means any of various wood-boring marine crustaceans of the genus Limnoria, especially Limnoria lignorum, which cause damage to underwater wooden structures.
What part of speech is gribble?
Gribble can be a noun, an adjective or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce gribble?
Gribble is pronounced /ˈɡɹɪ.bəl/.
What is the plural of gribble?
The plural of gribble is gribbles.

Words near gribble in the dictionary

  1. GRI
  2. Gribben
  3. Gribbens
  4. Gribbin
  5. Gribbins
  6. gribble
  7. gribbles
  8. Gribbon
  9. gribenes
  10. Gribetz
  11. gribiche

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gribble (page history and authors); Gribble (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)-Flame, not lame-gribble.wav.

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