drabble

[drab-uh l]

verb (used with or without object), drab·bled, drab·bling.

to draggle; make or become wet and dirty.

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 drab², draff

Drabble

[drab-uh l]

noun

Margaret,born 1939, English novelist.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for drabble

Historical Examples of drabble

There was a wall between Cleg and the Drabble, a wall with a place for your toes.
Cleg Kelly, Arab of the City
S. R. (Samuel Rutherford) Crockett
After that the Drabble, an it liked him, might steal all the collars in the Pleasance.
Cleg Kelly, Arab of the City
S. R. (Samuel Rutherford) Crockett
The Drabble had a reason, or at least an excuse, for being on the spot.
Cleg Kelly, Arab of the City
S. R. (Samuel Rutherford) Crockett
He merely stated what he meant to do to the Drabble when he met him again.
Cleg Kelly, Arab of the City
S. R. (Samuel Rutherford) Crockett
He was not a policeman, and if the Drabble wished to get into the lock-up, it was not his business.
Cleg Kelly, Arab of the City
S. R. (Samuel Rutherford) Crockett

British Dictionary definitions for drabble

drabble

verb

to make or become wet or dirty

Word Origin for drabble

C14: from Low German drabbelen to paddle in mud; related to drab ²

Drabble

noun

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

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012