drib
English edit
Pronunciation edit
Etymology 1 edit
From dialectal English drib (compare also drub), a variant from Middle English drepen (“to hit, strike, slay”), from Old English drepan (“to strike, kill, overcome”), from Proto-Germanic *drepaną (“to hit, strike”).
Verb edit
drib (third-person singular simple present dribs, present participle dribbing, simple past and past participle dribbed)
- (transitive) To cut off; chop off.
- (transitive) To cut off little by little; cheat by small and reiterated tricks; purloin.
- (transitive) To entice step by step.
- a. 1701, [John] Dryden, “Book I”, in Ovid, Ovid’s Art of Love. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson […], published 1709, →OCLC, page 32:
- With daily Lies ſhe dribs thee into Coſt; / That Ear-ring dropt a Stone, that Ring is loſt: / They often borrow what they never pay; / What e'er you lend her think it thrown away.
- To appropriate unlawfully; to embezzle.
- 1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, Charles Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Seventh Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: Printed for Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC:
- He who drives their bargains dribs a part.
- (transitive, archery) To shoot directly at short range.
- (intransitive, archery) To shoot at a mark at short range.
- (transitive, archery) To shoot (a shaft) so as to pierce on the descent.
- c. 1580s, Philip Sidney, “Astrophel and Stella”, in Mary Sidney, editor, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia […], 3rd edition, London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1598, →OCLC, sonnet 2, page 519:
- Not at first sight, nor with a dribbèd shot, / Love gave the wound […]
- (transitive, now chiefly British, dialectal) To beat; thrash; drub.
- (transitive, now chiefly British, dialectal) To scold.
- (transitive, now chiefly British, dialectal, marbles) To strike another player's marble when playing from the trigger.
Etymology 2 edit
From a variant of drip.
Noun edit
drib (plural dribs)
- (obsolete) A drop.
- a. 1772, Rupert Barber, An Answer to the Christmas-Box:
- squandering his money in dribs to the poor