| 释义 |
▪ I. dibble, n.|ˈdɪb(ə)l|
Forms: 5 debylle, 6 dybbil, 6–7 dible, 6– dibble.
[In form belonging app. to dib v.2 (sense 4), -le being instrumental as in beetle, or diminutive: cf. dibber, dibbing-stick in same sense. Dibble is however evidenced much earlier than dib v.2, which leaves the nature of their relation doubtful.]
An instrument used to make holes in the ground for seeds, bulbs, or young plants. In its simplest form, a stout pointed cylindrical stick with or without a handle; but it may also have a cross bar or projection for the foot (foot-dibble), or be forked at the point, or furnished with several points to make a number of holes at once.
c1450Nominale in Wr.-Wülcker 713 Hoc subterrarium, a debylle. 1483Cath. Angl. 92 A Debylle, pastinacum, subterratorium. 1563T. Hill Art Garden. 128 With your forked dibble, put vnder the head, loose it so in the earth, that [etc.]. 1570Levins Manip. 124/42 A dybbil. 1573Tusser Husb. (1878) 101 Through cunning with dible, rake, mattock, and spade, By line and by leauell, trim garden is made. 1611Shakes. Wint. T. iv. iv. 100 Ile not put The Dible in earth, to set one slip of them. 1674Ray S. & E.C. Words 64 A Dibble, an instrument to make holes in the ground with for setting beans, pease or the like. 1727Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Dibble, There is a Dibble of a modern Invention with several Teeth, the Body of it is made of a light Wood, and the Teeth of a Wood that is somewhat harder. 1818Keats Endym. iii. 153 In sowing-time ne'er would I dibble take, Or drop a seed. 1859R. F. Burton Centr. Afr. in Jrnl. Geog. Soc. XXIX. 397 The people use a msaha or dibble, a chisel-shaped bit of iron, with a socket to receive a wooden handle. 1861Delamer Fl. Gard. 48 To plant them with the trowel or dibble.
†b. ? A moustache. Obs. slang.
1614B. Jonson Barth. Fair ii. iii, Neuer tuske, nor twirle your dibble, good Iordane.
▪ II. dibble, n.2 Brit. slang (orig. in Manchester).
Brit. |ˈdɪbl|, U.S. |ˈdɪb(ə)l|
[‹ the name of Officer Dibble, a friendly but largely ineffectual policeman character in the U.S. television cartoon Top Cat (originally aired 1960–1 (and first shown in the United Kingdom in 1962, originally under the name Boss Cat), but frequently repeated).]
With the and pl. concord: the police. Also as a count noun: a police officer.
1990Guardian 15 Dec. (Weekend Suppl.) 20/1 In April the police, or the dibble as they like to call them around here [sc. Moss Side, Manchester], raided a flat where they found a 16-year-old boy with a gun. 1998J. White Diary of Darren Tackle 29, I got back after that Barney Butcher show a week ago to find my ansafone lighting up like a dibble's breathalyser. 2004V. McDermid Torment of Others (2005) 148 Not a good idea just now, Jason. I'm waiting for the dibble.
▪ III. dibble, v.1|ˈdɪb(ə)l|
[f. dibble n.]
1. trans. To make a hole in (the soil) with or as with a dibble; to sow or plant by this means. to dibble in (into): to put in or plant by dibbling.
1583Stanyhurst æneis iv. (Arb.) 110 So far is yt crampernd with roote deepe dibled at helgats. 1791Cowper Yardley Oak 26 A skipping deer, With pointed hoof dibbling the glebe. 1797A. Young Agric. Suffolk 47 One farmer near Dunwich..dibbled 258 acres. 1799Gentl. Mag. I. 392 A woman employed..dibbling beans. 1847–8H. Miller First Impr. ix. (1857) 145 The clayey soil around it was dibbled thick..by the tiny hoofs of sheep. 1855M. Arnold Balder Dead iii. 312 The soft strewn snow Under the trees is dibbled thick with holes. 1872Baker Nile Tribut. iv. 54 The seeds of the dhurra are dibbled in about three feet apart.
transf.1883Sir E. Beckett in Knowl. 31 Aug. 140/2 The printer's passion for dibbling in a comma between every two adjectives.
2. intr. To use or work with a dibble; to bore holes in the soil.
Mod. He was dibbling in his garden.
Hence ˈdibbled ppl. a.; ˈdibbling vbl. n.; also in Comb., as dibbling-machine.
1795Hull Advertiser 10 Oct. 3/3 If Dibbling, instead of Broadcast, was wholly practised, it would produce a saving. 1832Veg. Subst. Food 38 Depositing the seed in holes..at regular intervals..is called drilling, or dibbling. 1846J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. II. 210 It appears..that drilling with the hoe is much preferable to dibbling. Ibid. There was..one quarter more of produce from the drilled crop than from the dibbled. 1874Knight Dict. Mech., Dibbling-machine, one used for making holes in rows for potato sets, for beans, or other things which are planted isolated in rows.
▪ IV. dibble, v.2|ˈdɪb(ə)l|
[Perhaps a derived form from dabble with lighter vowel: but cf. dib v.2 3.]
1. intr. = dabble v. 2.
1622Drayton Poly-olb. xxv. (1748) 366 And near to them you see the lesser dibbling teale.
2. = dib v.2 3, dap v. 1.
1658R. Franck North. Mem. (1821) 60 Dibble lightly on the surface of the water. 1676Cotton Angler (T.), This stone-fly..we dape or dibble with, as with the drake. 1681J. Chetham Angler's Vade-m. vii. §2 (1688) 75 When you angle at ground in a clear Water, or dibble with natural Flies. 1833Fraser's Mag. VII. 54 He..bobs and dibbles till he hooks his prey.
Hence ˈdibbling vbl. n.
1676Cotton Angler ii. v. 295 This way of fishing we call Daping or Dabbing, or Dibling wherein you are always to have your Line flying before you up or down the River as the Wind serves. 1858Sat. Rev. V. 569/2 Dibbling for trout he considers a high achievement. |