† ribblev.
Agriculture. English regional and Scottish. Obsolete.
transitive. To plough (soil, land) by turning earth on to a strip left unploughed between furrows. Cf. rib v.2 2b.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > farming > cultivation or tillage > breaking up land > ploughing > plough (land) [verb (transitive)] > methods of turning furrow
ribble1764
slit1766
split1844
to gather up1846
back-furrow1855
1764 Museum Rusticum (1765) 3 lxxiv. 321 Third ploughing, ribbling it overwart.
1775 G. Harrison Agric. Delineated 170 July the first, harrowed it. On the sixteenth, ribbled it close across.
1804 A. Young Farmer's Cal. 342 This year I ribbled one field across, and clean-ploughed one.
1838 Penny Cycl. XI. 268/2 The Cotswold land is injured by too much stirring; it is therefore ploughed with a very shallow furrow, or only ribbled, which is done by leaving a solid portion between every two furrows.
1847 Jrnl. Royal Agric. Soc. 8 ii. 296 Others again scarify or ribble after the fold, and drill the barley on one earth.
Derivatives
ribbling n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > farming > cultivation or tillage > breaking up land > ploughing > [noun] > furrow > methods of turning furrow
henting?a1605
veering1733
ribbling1770
casting1825
cut-and-cover1839
back-striking1844
gathering1846
1770 A. Young Course Exper. Agric. I. i. i. 15 This half-plowing in Suffolk is called ribbling.
1804 A. Young Farmer's Cal. 344 What an immense improvement is this upon the common slovenly custom of Norfolk, of ribbling, or half, or bastard-ploughing such layers.
1847 Jrnl. Royal Agric. Soc. 8 ii. 288 Another system of fallowing is adopted by many, namely, that of ‘ribbling’; this is done by turning a furrow to the unploughed land, and, in returning, to turn over this furrow and the earth upon which the first furrow was laid.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2010; most recently modified version published online September 2020).
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v.1764