Other forms: pebbles
A pebble is a small smooth stone rounded by water. Throw a pebble, a pebble beach, pebbles underfoot.
Geologists size them exactly: a pebble is between four and sixty-four millimetres, below that is gravel and above it a cobble. The rounding is done by knocking against other stones rather than by the water itself. Pebble beaches absorb wave energy better than sand.
1nounpebbleA small smooth stone rounded by water.
“He skimmed a flat pebble across the lake.”
pebble is a stone.
Old English papolstan means a pebble-stone; the first element is of unknown origin and may be imitative.
Old English
papol-stān — pebble-stone
Middle English
pibel
English, today
pebble
From Middle English pibel (also in pibleston), from Old English papol-stān (“pebble-stone”), from Old English papol, pyppel, pæbbel of unknown origin + Old English stān. Compare Albanian popël.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA