nibble
Americanverb (used without object)
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to bite off small bits.
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to eat or chew in small bites.
Give him a graham cracker to nibble on.
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to bite, eat, or chew gently and in small amounts (usually followed byat ).
She was so upset she could only nibble at her food.
verb (used with object)
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to bite off small bits of (something).
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to eat (food) by biting off small pieces.
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to bite in small bits.
He nibbled each morsel with great deliberation.
noun
idioms
verb
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(esp of animals, such as mice) to take small repeated bites (of)
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to take dainty or tentative bites
to nibble at a cake
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to bite (at) gently or caressingly
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(intr) to make petty criticisms
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(intr) to consider tentatively or cautiously
to nibble at an idea
noun
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a small mouthful
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an instance or the act of nibbling
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informal (plural) small items of food, esp savouries, usually served with drinks
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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nibblesimple
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nibblessimple
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have nibbledperfect
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has nibbledperfect
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am nibblingprogressive
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are nibblingprogressive
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is nibblingprogressive
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have been nibblingperfect progressive
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has been nibblingperfect progressive
Past
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nibbledsimple
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had nibbledperfect
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was nibblingprogressive
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were nibblingprogressive
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had been nibblingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of nibble
1425–75; late Middle English nebillen to peck away at, nibble, try, perhaps < Middle Low German nibbelen to pick with the beak; cf. nib, -le
Explanation
To nibble is to eat in tiny bites. If you nibble your chocolate chip cookie while your sister gobbles hers quickly, yours will last much longer. Your pet rabbit probably nibbles on the carrots you give him, and he might even nibble, or bite very softly, on your fingers. Any one of these gentle or small bites can be called a nibble. The word probably stems from the Low German nibbeln, "to gnaw."
Vocabulary lists containing nibble
Excerpt from "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer"
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Moko Magic: Carnival Chaos
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
"But the larger ants seemed to seek the attention of the smaller ants by first visiting their nests and then allowing the small ants to lick and nibble all over them."
From Science Daily ● Apr. 14, 2026
McDonald’s Chief Executive Chris Kempczinski had taken what social media mocked as a paltry nibble in a video promoting the chain’s new Big Arch burger, or “product,” as the CEO called it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 7, 2026
The thin-cut vegetables make it easy to nibble a bite at a time, rather than staring down a full head of lettuce in a salad bowl.
From Salon ● Jan. 29, 2026
“I’m praying for the guy, hoping it was just a nibble and he’s back in the water soon.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 13, 2025
Blackberry scuttered along the wood toward him and began to nibble at some kind of greenstuff.
From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams
Snack on them alongside your favorite nibbles in the afternoon.
From Salon ● Jul. 20, 2026
“We set him up with a heated tent, a selection of sandwiches and nibbles and some excellent beverages, and then he attended a board meeting remotely,” McCallum says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2025
Not surprisingly, he got all kinds of scholarship offers from top-notch football programs but only nibbles from big-time basketball schools.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2025
Or there will be no more wine and nibbles for you.
From BBC ● Sep. 5, 2024
He would lecture me about his latest research into the boring life of some dead guy while I ate tiny forkfuls of mushroom omelette and nibbles of cinnamon bagel with butter.
From "Wintergirls" by Laurie Halse Anderson
Another giveaway water voles are present are small food stashes and nibbled plants.
From BBC ● Jun. 30, 2026
At night, bedbugs nibbled at the 312 people laying like sardines on the floor of Namazi’s section of Ward 4.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 23, 2026
Thousands had watched Jackie and Shadow on livestream, as they meticulously arranged sticks in their nest high in a Jeffrey pine and nibbled each other’s feathers in preparation for laying.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 3, 2026
"What that means is that, in the case of the squirrel, it nibbled on aloe and took those metabolites into its own bloodstream," explained Bromage.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 3, 2026
With my eyes squeezed shut, I nibbled and swallowed.
From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas
He also came to treasure his time mowing the fairways each morning before the golfers arrived, the dew glistening on the grass while the nibbling, untroubled deer looked on from the rough.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 11, 2026
But instead of attacking, the smaller ants climb onto the bigger ones and begin licking and nibbling across their bodies.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 14, 2026
“I don’t even know how to attack it. God, so much to it. Alright, the moment of truth,” Kempczinski says in the clip, before nibbling the sandwich.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 6, 2026
Stewart recommends making pumpkin piñatas, bobbing for apples or nibbling on doughnuts hanging from a string.
From Salon ● Oct. 30, 2025
She was nervously nibbling a pencil as though it were a cob of corn.
From "Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics" by Chris Grabenstein
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
