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• drabble
  drabble

  verb (used with or without object)

  to draggle; make or become wet and dirty.
• Drabble
  Drabble

  noun

  Dame Margaret, born 1939, English novelist, short-story writer, and biographer (sister ofA. S. Byatt ).

drabble

¹ American  

[drab-uhl] / ˈdræb əl /

verb (used with or without object)

drabbled, drabbling

1. to draggle; make or become wet and dirty.

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Drabble ² American  

[drab-uhl] / ˈdræb əl /

noun

1. Dame Margaret, born 1939, English novelist, short-story writer, and biographer (sister ofA. S. Byatt ).

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Drabble ¹ British  

/ ˈdræbəl /

noun

1. Dame Margaret. born 1939, British novelist and editor. Her novels include The Needle's Eye (1972), The Radiant Way (1987), and The Seven Sisters (2002). She edited the 1985 edition of the Oxford Companion to Literature

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drabble ² British  

/ ˈdræbəl /

verb

1. to make or become wet or dirty

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Etymology

Origin of drabble

1350–1400; Middle English drabelen < Middle Low German drabbeln to wade in liquid mud, bespatter, equivalent to drabbe liquid mud + -eln frequentative v. suffix; see drab ², draff

Example Sentences

The author was born Antonia Susan Drabble on Aug. 24, 1936, and published her first novel, “The Shadow of a Sun,” in 1964.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 17, 2023

She was the sister of the novelist Margaret Drabble, and the siblings drew parallels with the Brontes, a comparison they tended to spurn.

From Reuters • Nov. 17, 2023

Mrs Drabble said she saved money on a wedding bouquet by getting a friend to make one from paper flowers, rather than fresh ones.

From BBC • May 11, 2023

Their readers form a surprisingly wide-reaching bunch, and include the novelist Margaret Drabble and the “His Dark Materials” author Philip Pullman.

From New York Times • Feb. 3, 2022

Mrs. Drabble shall make me a good strong cup of tea when I get home.'

From Uncle Max by Carey, Rosa Nouchette