dribs and drabs

American  

plural noun

1. small and usually irregular amounts.

   He repaid the loan in dribs and drabs.

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dribs and drabs British  

/ drɪbz /

plural noun

1. small sporadic amounts

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dribs and drabs Idioms  

1. Bits and pieces, negligible amounts, as in There's not much left, just some dribs and drabs of samples. The noun drib is thought to be a shortening of driblet, for “drop” or “tiny quantity,” dating from the early 1700s, whereas drab meaning “a small sum of money” dates from the early 1800s.

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Example Sentences

They should have the candor to admit this openly to Europe, Congress and the American public, rather than do it in stealthy dribs and drabs.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 18, 2026

Information is arriving "in dribs and drabs from motorbike couriers circulating the region", making it difficult to establish an accurate toll, a humanitarian source told AFP.

From Barron's • Feb. 1, 2026

Hopefully, more will come in, because they tend to come in in dribs and drabs over the first few months of the year.

From BBC • Feb. 7, 2025

And it's not until more trickles of information started pouring out in dribs and drabs that I started to wonder, "What's the bigger story here, and what actually happened?"

From Salon • Aug. 28, 2024

She let out her story in dribs and drabs.

From "Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia" by Marc Favreau