Other forms: nibbles, nibbling, nibbled
To nibble is to eat something in small, quick bites, the way a mouse works at the corner of a cracker. The edge of a biscuit taken off first, the chocolate scraped from the top of the cake, a rabbit going along a lettuce leaf.
The word stays small: you nibble crisps at a party, you do not nibble a steak. It takes AT when the eating is half-hearted — nibbling at your lunch means pushing the food around and taking little bites — and fish nibble at bait before they take it. Nibble away at something and you are reducing it a piece at a time, the way rent nibbles away at a wage. As a noun, a nibble is one small bite; in Britain, nibbles in the plural are the crisps and olives put out with the drinks. There is a warm, flirty use too, nibbling someone's ear, which is the same careful little bite doing different work.
1verbnibbleTo eat something in small, quick bites.
“She nibbled a corner of the biscuit and put the rest back on the plate.”
synonyms: peck
2verbgentlyTo bite gently and repeatedly at something without really eating it.
“The fish nibbled at the bait for a minute and then swam off.”
3verbreduceTo reduce something a small piece at a time.
“Rising rents nibbled away at what was left of her savings.”
4nounfoodA small bite of food, or a small amount eaten.
“He took a nibble of the cheese and pulled a face.”
5nounplural(plural, British) Small snacks put out for guests with drinks.
“There were bowls of nibbles on every table before dinner.”
nibble is a way of eating.
Nibble comes from late Middle English nebillen, to peck away at something. Past that the trail goes uncertain: it may come from Middle Low German nibbelen, to eat in small bites, peck, and behind that perhaps a Proto-Indo-European root *gnet-, to press. Or it may simply be the sound of small teeth, which is how imitative words get made.
Proto-Indo-European
*gnet- — to press
Middle Low German
nibbelen — to eat in small bites, peck
Middle English
nebillen
English, today
nibble
Built from
The verb is derived from Late Middle English nebillen, nebyll (“to peck away at (something), nibble; (figurative) to attempt to sing (a part of a song)”); further etymology uncertain, possibly from Middle Low German nibbelen (“to eat in small bites, peck”) (modern German Low German nibbeln, gnibbeln, knibbeln), possibly a variant of knabbelen, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European gnet- (“to press”) or imitative. The noun is derived from the verb. 2
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Everyday Verbs, A Man Called Ove
First appears in chapter 19 of A Man Called Ove.
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