nibble

verb

1. (transitive)To take a small, quick bite, or several of such bites, of (something).

   “The rabbit nibbled the lettuce.”

   “His little Goats gan driue out of their ſtalls, / To feede abroad, vvhere paſture beſt befalls. / […] / Some clambring through the hollovv cliffes on hy, / Nibble the buſhie ſhrubs, vvhich grovve thereby.”

   “I then nibbled all the red wax of our last ball-tickets, […]”

   “Dire Ills, it ſeems! their Gods denounce in Rage; / And Garlick only, can their Gods aſſvvage. / Thrice then, each Morn, (for thrice the Povvers direct) / Garlick thou nibbleſt, vvith devout Reſpect.”

   “A silent space with ever sprouting green. / All the tenderest birds there find a pleasant screen, / Creep through the shade with jaunty fluttering, / Nibble the little cupped flowers and sing.”

2. (transitive)To lightly bite (a person or animal, or part of their body), especially in a loving or playful manner; to nip.

   “My hand, as it hangs down, thou nibblest tenderly, […]”

   “Social animals perform many little services for each other: horses nibble, and cows lick each other, on any spot which itches: […]”

3. (transitive)To make (a hole in something) through small bites.
4. (transitive)To make (one's way) through or while taking small bites.

   “Before he realized it, he had nibbled his way through a whole bag of potato chips.”

   “The cows nibbled their way across the field.”

5. (transitive)Chiefly followed by into or to: to cause (something) to be in a certain state through small bites.

   “The bases of the smaller trees were nibbled bare by rabbits, […]”

   “The grass had been nibbled short and even, so this stretch was not shaggy and red like the surrounding country, but gray and velvety.”

6. (transitive)Followed by away, off, etc.: to remove (something) through small bites.

   “The ravviſh danke of clumzie vvinter ramps / The fluent ſummers vaine: and drizling ſleete / Chilleth the vvan bleak cheek of the numd earth, / VVhilſt ſnarling guſts nibble the iuyceles leaues, / From the nak't ſhuddring branch; […]”

   “Am I reiected, all my baites nibled off, / And not the fiſh caught?”

   “Y[oung] Lar[oon]. I am ſure our Bait is good—A fine VVoman is as good a Bait for a Prieſt-trap, as toaſted Cheeſe is for a Mouſe-trap. / Old Lar[oon]. Yes, but the Raſcal vvill nibble off tvventy Baits before you can take him.”

   “They had been silent for some minutes when Broughton took his cigar-case out of his pocket, and nibbled off the end of a cigar, preparatory to lighting it.”

7. (transitive)Followed by away, off, etc.: to remove (something) through small bites.
8. (obsolete, transitive)To fidget or play with (something), especially with the fingers or hands.

   “Ellen stood dumb and motionless, looking steadfastly down at the hem of her green jerkin, which she was nibbling with both her hands.”

9. (obsolete, slang, transitive)To catch (someone); to nab.

   “[T]he Roague has ſpied me novv, hee nibled me finely once too; […]”

10. (obsolete, slang, transitive)To steal (something); to pilfer.
11. (intransitive)Chiefly followed by at, away, or on: to take a small, quick bite, or several of such bites; to eat (at frequent intervals) with small, quick bites.

    “The rabbit nibbled at the lettuce.”

    “What deepe and rare pointes of hiddẽ [hidden] secrets Virgil hathe sealde vp in hys twelue bookes of Aeneis, maye easily appeare to such reaching wits, as bend their endeuours, to the vnfolding thereof; not only by gnibling vpon the outwarde rine of a supposed historie, but also by groaping the pyth, that is shrind vp within the barke and bodie of so exquisit and singular a discourse.”

    “I doo but yet angle with a silken flye, to see whether Martins will nibble; and if I see that, why then I have wormes for the nonce, and will giue them line enough like a trowte, till they swallow both hooke and line, and then Martin beware your gilles, for Ile make you daunce at the poles end.”

    “He vvill rob me, his teeth vvater to be nibbling at my gold, but this ſhal hang him by'th gills, till I pull him on ſhore.”

    “Go daughters vvith your Angels to the brooke, / And ſee if any ſiluer-coated fiſh, / VVill nibble at your vvorme-embovveld hooks: […]”

12. (intransitive)To lightly bite, especially in a loving or playful manner.

    “He nibbled at my neck and made me shiver.”

13. (figuratively, intransitive)Chiefly followed by at: to show slight interest in something, such as a commercial opportunity or a proposal.

    “[W]hy mouſe, thy minde is nibbling at ſomething, vvhats iſt, vvhat lyes vpon thy Stomach?”

14. (figuratively, intransitive)Followed by away at: to reduce or use up gradually; to eat.

    “A report out this week from the National Consumer Law Center lays out a host of ways in which banks nibble away at jobless benefits with fees the center called "junk."”

15. (figuratively, informal, intransitive)Followed by at: of a batter: to make an indecisive attempt to bat a ball bowled outside the off stump.
16. (figuratively, intransitive)Synonym of tramline (“of a vehicle: to tend to follow the contours of the ground with its wheels”).
17. (intransitive, obsolete)To fidget or play, especially with the fingers or hands.
18. (intransitive, obsolete)Chiefly followed by at: to make insignificant complaints; to carp, to cavil, to find fault.

    “Nay more, have not some of their devoted Schollers begun, I need to saw to nibble, but openly to argue against the Kings Supremacie?”

    “But hovvever he vvill nibble at ſome Paſſages of this Section, to ſhevv his ovvn great VVit; though he borrovvs another Man's great reading.”

    “But Saint Augustine has the great priority, / Who bids all men believe the impossible, / Because 'tis so. Who nibble, scribble, quibble, he / Quiets at once with "quia impossibile."”

    “Deep-reaching doubt and "large discourse" are poetical; so is faith, so are sorrow and joy; but so are not the small troubles of spirits that nibble and quibble about beliefs living or dead; […]”

19. (intransitive, obsolete, slang)To engage in sexual intercourse.

    “Hart I vvould giue but too much money to be nibling vvith that vvench, […]”

    “Sec[retary to the Dutchess]. […] A ſpirited Lady, vvould I had her in my cloſet, […] Exit. / Cel[inda]. I do ſuſpect this fellovv vvould be nibling / Like ſome vvhoſe narrovv fortunes vvill not riſe / To vvear things vvhen the inventions rare, and nevv, / But treading on the heel of pride, they hunt / The faſhion vvhen tis crippled, like fell tyrants; […]”

noun

1. An act of taking a small, quick bite, or several of such bites, especially with the front teeth; the bite or bites so taken.

   “[H]e would sit on a wet rock, with a rod as long and heavy as a Tartar's lance, and fish all day without a murmur, even though he should not be encouraged by a single nibble.”

2. A light bite of a person or animal, or part of their body, especially one which is loving or playful; a nip.
3. An amount of food that is or can be taken into the mouth through a small bite; a small mouthful.

   “Yo'r sheep will be a' folded, a reckon, Measter Pratt, for there'll ne'er be a nibble o' grass to be seen this two month, according to my reading; […]”

4. (figuratively)A slight show of interest in something, such as a commercial opportunity or a proposal.
5. (obsolete, rare)Grass or other vegetation eaten by livestock; forage, pasturage.

   “On the northern slopes of the light-earthed hills the moss had come over the herbage, and the sweet nibble of the sheep was souring.”

6. A unit of memory equal to half a byte, or chiefly four bits.

   “I own several abaci and two books on how to use them, but they all have four counters below the bar and one counter above it. […] The bottom four counters of each abacus can be used to represent a "nybble," and the upper counter on each can be used for parity.”

   “At every negative-going transition it reads a 4-bit ADPCM nybble (there are 2 nybbles per byte) and stores it in a memory-resident table.”

   “Data is being received by a system in serial sequences of four bit nybbles. (A nybble is usually defined as a four bit grouping.) […] Our mission, should we decide to accept it, is to test each nybble and determine whether or not the four bits constitute a valid BCD (8421) number.”

   “Each pixel has an integer gray scale value associated with it to indicate its shade of gray. […] Gray scale values can be stored in either 4 bits (nibble) or 8 bits (byte).”

   “That is, the lower nibble (the 4 bits 1010 = A) has been masked to zero.”