pebble
[peb-uh l]
- a small, rounded stone, especially one worn smooth by the action of water.
- Also called pebble leather. leather that has been given a granulated surface.
- any granulated or crinkled surface, especially of a textile.
- a transparent colorless rock crystal used for the lenses of eyeglasses.
- a lens made from this crystal.
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- to prepare (leather) so as to have a granulated surface.
- to pelt with or as with pebbles.
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Origin of pebble
1250–1300; Middle English pibbil, puble, pobble; compare Old English pæbbel (in place names), papel-, popel- (in compounds); phonological relations unclear
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for pebble
Contemporary Examples
Pluck a pebble from a mountain and pretend the mountain is gone.
The maze ends in an expansive Zen garden, complete with a pebble pool-pit and a vast mirror along one wall.
Other key presenters included executives from Google, Microsoft, and start-ups like Pebble.
The Pebble comes close, but it still looks like a computer sitting on a wristband.
And then, if a cat or a dog comes along and sniffs the pebble, it dies.
Historical Examples
A brazen urn was carried round, in which every citizen deposited a pebble.
PhilotheaLydia Maria Child
He didn't toss it up, not a bit of it; ran as game as a pebble; he just tired at the finish.
ThoroughbredsW. A. Fraser
A pebble, dropped from your hand, would strike in the midst of them.
The Gorgon's HeadNathaniel Hawthorne
"I guess that will show up every pebble in the road," commented the balloonist.
Tom Swift and his Electric RunaboutVictor Appleton
Two more of these "others" are the two in the photograph who are playing a pebble game.
Lotus BudsAmy Carmichael
pebble
- a small smooth rounded stone, esp one worn by the action of water
- geologya rock fragment, often rounded, with a diameter of 4–64 mm and thus smaller than a cobble but larger than a granule
- a transparent colourless variety of rock crystal, used for making certain lenses
- such a lens
- (modifier) informal (of a lens or of spectacles) thick, with a high degree of magnification or distortion
- a grainy irregular surface, esp on leather
- leather having such a surface
- informal, mainly Australian a troublesome or obstinate person or animal
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- to pave, cover, or pelt with pebbles
- to impart a grainy surface to (leather)
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Word Origin
Old English papolstān, from papol- (perhaps of imitative origin) + stān stone
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
Word Origin and History for pebble
n.
small, smooth stone, late 13c., from Old English papolstan "pebblestone," of unknown origin. Perhaps imitative. Some sources compare Latin papula "pustule, pimple, swelling."
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
pebble
[pĕb′əl]
- A rock fragment larger than a granule and smaller than a cobble. Pebbles have a diameter between 4 and 64 mm (0.16 and 2.56 inches) and are often rounded.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Idioms and Phrases with pebble
pebble
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The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.