Word.ws English Dictionary

nibbling

Syllables: nib·bling/ˈnɪblɪŋ//ˈnɪb(ə)lɪŋ/

nibbling noun: the act or sound of one who nibbles. Also the present participle and gerund of nibble.

Noun

nibbling (countable and uncountable, plural nibblings)

  1. The act or sound of one who nibbles.
    • Minute nibblings and rustlings broke the silence.1941, Virginia Woolf, Between the Acts
  2. A small adjustment or encroachment.
    • I send you back the two last sheets, because you bid me. I reserve my nibblings and minutiae for another day.1821, The British Prose Writers: Gray's letters, page 26
    • Meantime the penetration of Shantung by means of railway discrimination, railway military guards, continual nibblings here and there, will be going on.1921, John Dewey, China, Japan, and the USA

Also used as

nibbling is also the present participle and gerund of nibble.

Forms of nibbling

pluralnibblings

Origin of nibbling

From nibble + -ing.

Words that rhyme with nibbling

Questions about nibbling

What does nibbling mean?
Nibbling means the act or sound of one who nibbles.
What part of speech is nibbling?
Nibbling is a noun.
How do you pronounce nibbling?
Nibbling is pronounced /ˈnɪblɪŋ/ (UK).
What is the plural of nibbling?
The plural of nibbling is nibblings.

Words near nibbling in the dictionary

  1. nibblesome
  2. nibblest
  3. nibbleth
  4. nibblies
  5. nibblin'
  6. nibbling
  7. nibblingly
  8. nibblings
  9. nibbly
  10. nibby
  11. nibe croaker

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: nibbling (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-nibling.wav, En-us-nibling.mp3.

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