▪ I. ˈgribble1 Obs. exc. dial.
Also 6 greble, 7 grible.
[? related to grab, current form in s.w. dial. of crab n.2 (cf. grab-tree in quot. 1578).]
a. A crab-tree or black-thorn; a stick made from either of these; also attrib. b. The stock of a crab (or other tree?) for grafting upon.
| 1578 Lyte Dodoens vi. xxx. 696 Roundish leaues, som⁓what like the leaues of a gribble, grabbe tree, or wilding. 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict., Gancho, a sheeps crooke, knops in a greble staffe, braunches in a stags horne. c 1640 J. Smyth Hundred of Berkeley (1885) III. 25 A grible, i.e. A crabstocke to graft vpon. 1825 Jennings Observ. Dial. W. Eng. 41 Gribble, a young apple-tree raised from seed. 1847–78 Halliwell, Gribble, a shoot from a tree; a short cutting from one. West. 1863 W. Barnes Dorset Gloss., Gribble (diminutive of grab), a young crab-tree or black-thorn; or a knotty walking stick made of it. 1880 E. Cornwall Gloss., Gribble, the young stock of a tree on which a graft is to be inserted. |
▪ II. gribble2
(ˈgrɪb(ə)l)
[Of obscure origin: ? cognate with grub v.]
A small marine boring crustacean, Limnoria terebrans, resembling a wood-louse.
| 1838 E. Moore in Mag. Nat. Hist. II. 207 Our harbour [Plymouth] is exposed to the attacks of a much more formidable enemy, the Limnoria terebrans, or gribble. 1884 Stand. Nat. Hist. II. 71 Many plans have been proposed for preventing the ravages of the gribble. 1895 Daily News 14 June 5/3 To protect the gutta percha insulation from the attack of a minute marine organism known as the ‘gribble’. |