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

In the most memorable drabble to date, Perkins evidently struck a nerve among listeners by autobiographically focusing on her insecurities about her teeth and her kissing technique in her fictional romance with Jake Gyllenhaal.

From Slate • Jun. 18, 2018

Why don't you say that Lew Alcindor plays "dribble drabble," and Johnny Unitas "punt punt"?

From Time Magazine Archive

To befoul with rain and mud; to drabble.

From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (2nd 100 Pages) by Webster, Noah

The other forms, such as drabbe, dregg, and dragan, the b and v being analogous to E. draggle, drabble, draught, draft, all equally from dragan.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 06, No. 34, August, 1860 by Various

The look of them clutched one's heart with horror and despair, as if one looked on a once lovely mother turned to a street drabble.

From Still Jim by Morrow, Honoré