nub
Americannoun
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nubs
plural
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the point, gist, or heart of something.
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a knob or protuberance.
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a lump or small piece.
a nub of coal; a nub of pencil.
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a small mass of fibers produced on a card, dyed brilliant colors, and introduced into yarn during the spinning process.
noun
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a small lump or protuberance
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a small piece or chunk
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the point or gist
the nub of a story
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a small fibrous knot in yarn
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of nub
1585–95; < Low German, Middle Low German knubbe; cf. knob
Explanation
A nub is a little piece of something, especially one that sticks out. The raised rubber buttons on your TV remote control are nubs. Tiny lumps or bits are nubs, like the nubs on tree branches that will become buds in the spring, or the nubs on a crocheted blanket, little woven bumps. Another kind of nub is the heart or essence of something: one incriminating piece of evidence might be the nub of a judge's decision in a case. The "lump" meaning is older, stemming from knob, while the "essence" meaning dates from the nineteenth century.
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:
There lies the nub of the dilemma for Qatar and the five other Gulf states facing the brunt of the backlash from a war they tried to avert through diplomacy.
From Salon ● Mar. 21, 2026
However, a judge ordered the council to re-look at the complaint, saying it had not considered the nub of the matter - whether the fouling constituted a "statutory nuisance".
From BBC ● Dec. 22, 2025
But voices were growing for stronger action, saying the monarch was failing to get at the nub of the problem: in the public’s eye, the disgraced prince continues to live…well, like a prince.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2025
Both treatments caused the same dramatic effect: the hyphae elongated much more slowly and with a strange nub shape not found in nature.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 25, 2024
She can cut to the nub of a problem, dissect and analyse it in the time it takes other people to say good morning.
From "The Girl on the Train" by Paula Hawkins
The worn nubs of the first wharf can still be seen at times in low tide, and other parts of the structure have managed to survive the test of time.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 26, 2024
Now he spits out armadillo facts between the nubs of incoming front teeth in their mobile home, then points to his favorite ornament on their white, plastic Christmas tree.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 23, 2023
She would run her fingers along the pointed nubs of the beans — almost like someone would press prayer beads between their fingertips — and stare at the black-eyed Susans coming up in her backyard.
From Salon ● Sep. 4, 2023
Acting on a hunch that it was the rabbits gnawing the fruits to their nubs, the scientists trained three infrared camera traps on B. yuwanensis fruit bundles in January 2021.
From New York Times ● Jan. 26, 2023
I was plagued by wake-up-screaming nightmares so bad that I had to wear a mouth guard to keep from grinding my teeth into nubs as I slept.
From "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" by Ransom Riggs
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.
