▪ I. neb, n. Now chiefly north. and Sc.
(nɛb)
Also 1, 5–7 nebb, 2–7 nebbe.
[OE. nębb (:—*nęfj-) neut. = ON. nef (stem nefj-; Norw. nev, næv, Sw. näf) neut., related to MDu. nebbe fem. and masc. (Du. nebbe, neb fem.), MLG. nebbe fem. (hence Da. næb neut., Sw. näbb, Norw. nebb masc.). It is not clear whether the root *naf- is the same as that of nave n.1]
I. 1. a. The beak or bill of a bird. Also transf.
| c 725 Corpus Gloss. (Hessels) R 204 Rostrum, neb uel scipes caeli [Epinal celae]. a 1000 Phœnix 299 Sindon þa fiþru hwit..& þæt nebb lixeð swa glæs oþþe ᵹim. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints xxviii. (Margaret) 598 Þane com a dou of hewin fleand,..& in þe neb brocht a cron. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) viii. 31 Ilk ane of þam bringes in þaire nebbe..a braunche of olyue. c 1450 Holland Howlat 57 My neb is netherit as a nok, I am bot ane Owle. 1535 Coverdale Gen. viii. 11 She had broken of a leaf of an olyue tre, & bare it in hir nebb. 1567 Golding Ovid's Met. viii. (1593) 199 Diana..Makes wings to stretch along their sides, and horned nebs to stand Upon their mouthes. 1641 Best Farm. Bks. (Surtees) 123 The right side of the nebbe [of a swan]. 1745 tr. Egede's Descr. Greenland vi. 80 Fishes..with long Nebs or Bills like Birds. a 1813 A. Wilson Disconsolate Wren Poet. Wks. (1846) 98 Through the glen we took our flight, And soon my neb I filled. 1831 J. Wilson Let. in J. Hamilton Mem. iv. (1859) 135 The mother..sits with her neb generally open. 1885 W. K. Parker Mammalian Descent ii. 45 The thin horny layer still shows the ‘neb’ for breaking the egg-shells. |
| fig. 1721 Kelly Scot. Prov. 390 You may dight your Neb and flie up... You have ruined and undone your Business, and now you may give over. 1828 Moir Mansie Wauch ii. 25 Imagining that nothing remained for them, but to dight their nebs and flee up. 1830 Galt Lawrie T. v. ix. (1849) 235 If he were to throw a sheep's eye at you, and ye had a neb in your heart to pick it up. |
b. The mouth (of a person).
| 1611 Shakes. Wint. T. i. ii. 183 How she holds vp the Neb, the Byll to him! 1640 Brome Sparagus Gard. iii. ix, How kindly he kisses her! and how feately she holds up the neb to him! 1867 Waugh Home Life vii. 62 A little, light-haired lass, holding up her rosy neb to the soup-master. 1894 Crockett Raiders 391 Then Rab would come oot, dichting his neb frae the byre. |
2. The nose; the snout of an animal.
| c 1000 Laws ælfred in Thorpe Laws I. 94 ᵹif mon oðrum þæt neb of aslea, ᵹebete him mid lx scill. a 1100 Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 290 Nasu, nosu... Internasum, neb. a 1529 Skelton Sp. Parrot 418 The nebbis of a lyon they make to trete and trembyll. 1583 Golding Calvin on Deut. cc. 1245 He will not deceiue vs in his promises, nor holde vs downe with our nebbes in the Water as they say. 1737 Ramsay Sc. Prov. (1750) 114 Ye breed of Saughton swine, your neb's ne'er out of an ill turn. 1793 T. Scott Three Auld Men Poems 323 The snell frost-win' made nebs an' een To rin right sair. 1834 M. Scott Cruise Midge (1863) 177 Your eyes are blinded..and your neb peeled like an ill scraped radish. 1893 Kipling Many Invent. 233 He..laid his finger to his nose—his dishonourable, carnelian neb. |
3. a. The point or nib of a pen (or pencil).
| 1599 Middleton Micro-cynicon Wks. (Bullen) VIII. 114 My pen's two nebs shall turn into a fork. 1610 Holland Camden's Brit. i. 517 He had sharpned the neb of his pen against the Popes authority. a 1661 Fuller Worthies, Hereford ii. (1662) 36, I have so worne out the Neb of my Pen in my Church-History. 1688 Holme Armoury iii. xv. (Roxb.) 20/2 In the pen there is the nick or slip or slit, called the neb. 1798 Crawford Poems 48 (E.D.D.), The words just at the pen-neb hung. 1825 J. Wilson Noct. Ambr. Wks. 1855 I. 11 With the neb of my keelivine pen. |
b. Any projecting part or point; a peak, tip, toe, spout, etc.; the extremity of anything ending in a point or narrowed part.
| 1611 Cotgr., Penneton d'un clef, the bit, or neb of a key. 1626 Bacon Sylva i. §14 Take a Glasse with a Belly and a long Nebb. 1673 Ray Journ. Low C. 456 They melt the wax again..and run it..through the neb of a tin pot into water. 1698 Providence Rec. (1894) VI. 211 A stubb sithe with sneaths, nebbs and Rings. 1797 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) II. 590/2 Raise or depress the tube of the level by twisting the neb of the screw. 1807 Vancouver Agric. Devon (1813) 117 The light Dorset swing-plough..has a well-curved iron breast, one foot ten inches long from the neb to the end of the wrest. 1825 Ann. Reg. 268* Improvements in producing..a neb or slot in the roller..used in the printing of calico. 1881 Butterworth Cotton 62 Each line of rollers ought to be movable by separate stand slides and cap nebs. 1893 R. L. Stevenson Catriona xi. 116, I couldna see the nebs of my ten fingers. |
† c. The embryo or radicle of a seed. Obs. rare.
| 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iii. xxvii. (1686) 146 To destroy the little nebbe or principle of germination. 1660 Sharrock Vegetables 36 All seeds that I know have within their covers actually a Neb, which answers to a roote. |
d. ‘The pole of an ox-cart’ (E.D.D.); neb ox, a draught ox.
| 1710 New Hampsh. Probate Rec. (1907) I. 650 All my household goods and four Cows, and a yoak of neb Oxen..to be for her own proper use. 1865 ‘G. Hamilton’ Skirmishes ii. 7 Men left their oxen standing by the nebs. |
II. † 4. a. The face. Obs.
| c 897 K. ælfred Gregory's Past. C. v. 42 Ðonne hræce hio him on ðæt neb foran. c 1000 ælfric Hom. II. 102 Se ðe awent his neb fram clypiᵹendum ðearfan. c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 43 Alle heore teres beoð berninde gleden glidende ouer heore aȝene nebbe. a 1225 Ancr. R. 98 Scheau to me þi leoue neb & ti lufsume leor. c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 468/203 Op heo stod with wordes bolde, With briȝht neb and glade chere. 13.. Guy Warw. (A.) lxxv. 7 Wiþ a long berd his neb was growe. a 1400–50 Alexander 3940 Of sum þai nyppid fra þe nebb þe nose be þe eȝen. |
† b. neb to or with neb, face to face. Obs.
| c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 61 Cristes wille bo us bitwon, neb wið neb for him to son. c 1230 Hali Meid. 17 Secheð erst upon hire, nebbe to nebbe. c 1330 Florice & Bl. 615 He..find thar twai neb to neb, Neb to neb an mouth to mouth. |
Hence neb v., (a) intr. to kiss or bill; (b) trans. to adapt the point of (a pen) for writing.
| 1609 R. Armin Maids of More-Cl. (1880) 90 Shall not busse knight, shall not neb? a 1819 in Hogg Jacobite Relics I. 241 These two drakes may neb, go hand in hand. 1880 Gordon Chron. Keith 69 (E.D.D.), Caught nebbing the pen on the desk, and not on the thumb. |
▪ II. neb, v. (Formerly at neb n.)
(nɛb)
[f. the n.]
a. intr. To kiss or bill. b. trans. To adapt the point of (a pen) for writing. c. intr. To pry into the affairs of others; to behave in a ‘nosy’ or intrusive manner. Freq. const. about, in, etc. dial. (chiefly north. and U.S.).
| 1609 Armin Maids of More-Cl. (1880) 90 Shall not busse knight, shall not neb? a 1819 in Hogg Jacobite Relics I. 241 These two drakes may neb, go hand in hand. 1880 Gordon Chron. Keith 69 (E.D.D.), Caught nebbing the pen on the desk, and not on the thumb. 1893–4 R. O. Heslop Northumb. Words II. 494 He com nebbin up, as if he hed ony business wi'd. 1928 in H. Wentworth Amer. Dial. Dict. (1944) 408/2 She's always nebbin about. 1933 H. Allen Anthony Adverse III. ix. lxiii. 1088 Look at that smashed teakwood screen there. But come on; they don't like you nebbin' in just after a haul. 1948 Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 204 To neb, to be inquisitive [is]..recorded for West Virginia. 1984 Trans. Yorks. Dial. Soc. lxxxiv. 53 The..verb and noun neb and nebbin ‘to gossip with the intention of being nosey’ is commoner [than neb, the point of an object]. |