nubble
English edit
Etymology edit
Compare Low German nubben (“to knock, cuff”).
Noun edit
nubble (plural nubbles)
- A small knob or lump.
- 1897, Rudyard Kipling, “chapter 1”, in Captains Courageous:
- Harvey saw with disgust that there were no sheets on his bed-place. He was lying on a piece of dingy ticking full of lumps and nubbles.
Verb edit
nubble (third-person singular simple present nubbles, present participle nubbling, simple past and past participle nubbled)
- (obsolete) To beat or bruise with the fist.
- 1712, William Wagstaffe, Crispin the Cobler's Confutation of Ben H-dley:
- if his Master went an Hair's Breadth beyond his Duty, he was a Tyrant, that it was lawful for him to Nubble him
References edit
- “nubble”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.