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nibblemore about nibble

nibble


  5  definitions  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Nibble  \Nib"ble\,  v.  t. 
  To  bite  upon  something  gently  or  cautiously;  to  eat  a  little 
  of  a  thing  as  by  taking  small  bits  cautiously;  as  fishes 
  nibble  at  the  bait. 
 
  Instead  of  returning  a  full  answer  to  my  book,  he 
  manifestly  falls  a-nibbling  at  one  single  passage. 
  --Tillotson. 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Nibble  \Nib"ble\,  n. 
  A  small  or  cautious  bite. 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Nibble  \Nib"ble\,  v.  t.  [imp.  &  p.  p.  {Nibbled};  p.  pr  &  vb  n. 
  {Nibbling}.]  [Cf.  {Nip}.] 
  To  bite  by  little  at  a  time;  to  seize  gently  with  the  mouth; 
  to  eat  slowly  or  in  small  bits. 
 
  Thy  turfy  mountains,  where  live  nibbling  sheep.  --Shak. 
 
  From  WordNet  r  1.6  [wn]: 
 
  nibble 
  n  1:  a  small  byte  [syn:  {nybble}] 
  2:  gentle  biting 
  v  1:  bite  off  very  small  pieces;  "She  nibbled  on  her  cracker" 
  2:  eat  intermittently;  take  small  bites  of  "He  pieced  at  the 
  sandwich  all  morning";  "She  never  eats  a  full  meal--she 
  just  picks  at  the  food"  [syn:  {pick},  {piece}] 
  3:  eat  lightly;  "She  just  nibbles  at  her  food"  [syn:  {munch}] 
  [ant:  {gorge}] 
 
  From  The  Free  On-line  Dictionary  of  Computing  (13  Mar  01)  [foldoc]: 
 
  nibble 
 
    /nib'l/  (US  "nybble",  by  analogy  with  bite"  ->  "byte") 
  Half  a  {byte}.  Since  a  byte  is  nearly  always  eight  {bits},  a 
  nibble  is  nearly  always  four  bits  (and  can  therefore  be 
  represented  by  one  {hex}  digit). 
 
  Other  size  nibbles  have  existed,  for  example  the  {BBC 
  Microcomputer}  disk  file  system  used  eleven  bit  sector  numbers 
  which  were  described  as  one  byte  (eight  bits)  and  a  nibble 
  (three  bits). 
 
  Compare  {crumb},  {tayste},  {dynner};  see  also  {bit},  {nickle}, 
  {deckle}. 
 
  The  spelling  nybble"  is  uncommon  in  {Commonwealth  Hackish}  as 
  British  orthography  suggests  the  pronunciation  /ni:'bl/. 
 
  (1997-12-03) 
 
 




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