nibbleth

Verb

nibble (third-person singular simple present nibbles, present participle nibbling, simple past and past participle nibbled)

1. (transitive) To take a small, quick bite, or several of such bites, of (something).
   • The rabbit nibbled the lettuce.

   Synonyms:

   nab

2. (transitive) To lightly bite (a person or animal, or part of their body), especially in a loving or playful manner; to nip.
   • My hand, as it hangs down, thou nibblest tenderly, […]1837, Alphonse de Lamartine, “Ninth Epoch”, in F[rances] H[enrietta] Jobert, transl., Jocelyn: An Episode […], Paris: Baudry, […], →OCLC, page 350
3. (transitive) To make (a hole in something) through small bites.
4. (transitive) To make (one's way) through or while taking small bites.
   • Before he realized it, he had nibbled his way through a whole bag of potato chips.
5. (transitive) Chiefly followed by into or to: to cause (something) to be in a certain state through small bites.
   • The bases of the smaller trees were nibbled bare by rabbits, […]1886 May – 1887 April, Thomas Hardy, chapter VII, in The Woodlanders […], volume I, London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 1887, →OCLC, page 129
6. (transitive) Followed by away, off, etc.: to remove (something) through small bites.
   • The ravviſh danke of clumzie vvinter ramps / The fluent ſummers vaine: and drizling ſleete / Chilleth the vvan bleak cheek of the numd earth, / VVhilſt ſnarling guſts nibble the iuyceles leaues, / From the nak't ſhuddring branch; […]1600 or 1601 (date written), I. M. [i.e., John Marston], “The Prologue”, in Antonios Reuenge. The Second Part. […], London: […] [Richard Bradock] for Thomas Fisher, and are to be soulde [by Matthew...

See all 25 meanings of nibble