Word.ws English Dictionary

tribble

US/ˈtɹɪbl̩/

tribble noun: a horizontal frame with wires stretched across it for drying paper.

Noun (1)

tribble (plural tribbles)

  1. A horizontal frame with wires stretched across it for drying paper.

Noun (2)

tribble (plural tribbles)

  1. A fictional alien creature in Star Trek, a fast-breeding, cooing ball of fur.
    • Scales have proliferated like tribbles in quadra-triticale: just intonations, equal temperaments, scales based on overtones, scales generated from a single interval or pair of intervals, scales without octaves, scales arising from arcane mathematical formulas, scales that reflect cosmological or...1998, William A. Sethares, Tuning, Timbre, Spectrum, Scale, page 49
    • The Hyper-Producing Playwrights of Edmondton: Or Why Alberta’s Capital Breeds New Plays Like Tribbles.2008, Robin C. Whittaker, editor, Hot Thespian Action!, page 569

Proper noun capitalized: Tribble

Tribble (plural Tribbles)

  1. A surname.
    • Career diplomat Conrad Tribble said on Twitter that multiculturalism “is one of our greatest strengths as a country, and I go to that well often as an American diplomat. It’s hard to overstate the global soft power impact of America’s cultural diversity.”2021 January 19, Jennifer Hansler, Kylie Atwood and Nicole Gaouette, “Pompeo attacks multiculturalism, saying it is ‘not who America is’”, in CNN

Examples of tribble in a sentence

  • They were like tribbles, multiplying by the dozens, cackling, giggling their maniacal joy at the game.2010, Dakota Cassidy, chapter 19, in Accidentally Demonic:
  • They breed like tribbles, but at least they’re not terrestrial.2015, Zanzibar 7. Schwarzenegger, Veneri Verbum, page 19:

Forms of tribble

Noun
pluraltribbles
alternative formtreble
Proper noun
pluralTribbles

Origin of tribble

Unknown. The Century Dictionary suggests possibly a corruption of cribble (“sieve”).

Probably invented for alliteration with trouble; the creatures first appeared in an episode called "The Trouble with Tribbles".

Words that rhyme with tribble

4 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about tribble

What does tribble mean?
Tribble means a horizontal frame with wires stretched across it for drying paper.
How do you use tribble in a sentence?
They were like tribbles, multiplying by the dozens, cackling, giggling their maniacal joy at the game.
What part of speech is tribble?
Tribble can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce tribble?
Tribble is pronounced /ˈtɹɪbl̩/ (US).
What is the plural of tribble?
The plural of tribble is tribbles.

Words near tribble in the dictionary

  1. tribber
  2. tribbers
  3. Tribbett
  4. Tribbetts
  5. tribbing
  6. tribble
  7. tribbles
  8. Tribby
  9. Tribbys
  10. tribe
  11. TriBeCa

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tribble (page history and authors); Tribble (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-tribble.wav.

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