▪ I. dribble, v.
(ˈdrɪb(ə)l)
[freq. of drib v.; in certain uses associated with or influenced by drivel v.]
1. trans. To let (anything) flow or fall in drops or a trickling stream; to give forth or emit in driblets. lit. and fig. With out, forth, away.
| c 1589 Theses Martinianæ 31, I thinke it well if I can drible out a Pistle in octauo nowe and then. 1602 Warner Alb. Eng. ix. lii. (1612) 236 Dribling Almes by Art. c 1711 Swift Rules to Servants Wks. 1778 X. 275 Let the cook..follow..with a ladleful [of soup], and dribble it all the way up stairs. 1874 Green Short Hist. vii. 405 Elizabeth dribbled out her secret aid to the Prince of Orange. |
2. absol. or intr. To let the spittle flow down over the chin, as young children and imbecile people often do. Hence also fig., = drivel.
| 1673 Rules of Civility 61 Snoaring, sweating, gaping, or dribling. 1731 Mortimer in Phil. Trans. XXXVII. 167 He..had no Motion to vomit, but dribbled much. 1870 Dickens E. Drood 114 The Lascar laughs and dribbles at the Mouth. Mod. Infants generally dribble when they are teething. |
3. intr. To flow down in small quantities or in a small and fitful stream; to trickle.
| 1599, 1627, 1669, etc. [see dribbling]. 1784 R. B. Cheston in Med. Commun. II. 6 She had perceived her water dribbling from her. 1802 Paley Nat. Theol. xv. (1830) 185 Which receiver..allows the grain to dribble only in small quantities into the central hole in the upper mill-stone. 1878 Huxley Physiogr. 22 The water which falls upon the rock then dribbles through the little cracks. |
b. transf. and fig.
| 1600–1672 [see dribbling ppl. a. 3]. 1865 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. VII. xviii. v. 173 From about the end of June, the Reichs Army kept dribbling in. |
4. trans. In Assoc. Football, etc. To keep (the ball) moving along the ground in front of and close to one by a rapid succession of short pushes, instead of sending it as far as possible by a vigorous kick. Also absol.
| 1863 A. G. Guillemard in Sport. Gaz. Oct. (Football), The Eton game, when the ‘long-behind’ is dribbling the ball before his feet slowly forward. 1868 Football Annual 1 ‘Dribbling’, as the science of working the ball along the ground by means of the feet is technically termed. 1871 A. G. Guillemard in Bell's Life Apr., The Scottish forwards ‘gained not a little by their dribbling, which feature of the game is but seldom seen round London’. 1880 Times 12 Nov. 4/4 There is no more legitimate and scientific form of ‘football’ than the ‘drop-kick’ and that ‘dribbling’ with the feet which now forms a most important part of the Rugby game. 1883 F. M. Crawford Mr. Isaacs viii. 165 To dribble it [the ball, at polo], along. 1887 Daily News 10 Jan. 3/5 The English forwards dribbled the ball close up to the Welsh line and nearly scored. |
b. Billiards. To give (a ball) a slight push.
| 1873 Bennett & Cavendish Billiards 253 To keep the white by the spot, and by the same stroke to dribble the red over the corner. |
† 5. in Archery = drib v. 4. Obs.
| 1565 Golding Ovid's Met. xii. (1593) 293 Paris dribling out his shafts among the Greekes she spide. 1603 Shakes. Meas. for M. i. iii. 2 Beleeue not that the dribling dart of Loue Can pierce a compleat bosome. 1612–15 Bp. Hall Contempl., N.T. iv. i, Prayer is an arrow..if it be but dribbled forth of careless lips, it falls down at our foot. |
▪ II. dribble, n.
[f. prec. vb.]
1. A small trickling and barely continuous stream; a small quantity or drop of liquid.
| c 1680 [F. Sempill] Banishment Pov. in Watson Collect. I. 14 (Jam.), I..stour'd to Leith To try my credit at the wine; But [ne'er] a dribble fyld my teeth. 1785 Burns To a Mouse vi, The winter's sleety dribble. 1836 Marryat Midsh. Easy xxxviii, Teeth black with chewing, and always a little brown dribble from the left corner of his mouth. 1885 Manch. Exam. 6 June 5/4 This stream is a mere languid dribble from the side of the mountain. |
b. transf. and fig.
| 1832 Westm. Rev. XVII. 403 note, As often as her apron⁓string breaks, the stones fall in such a direction as to form a dribble. a 1871 R. Chambers Wheesht!, These people..attempt to work off ‘a great secret’ upon me, in their quiet way, dribble by dribble. 1871 L. Stephen Playgr. Eur. xii. (1894) 294 The little dribble of Commerce..never quite ceases. |
2. Assoc. Football. An act of ‘dribbling’: see dribble v. 4.
| 1889 Pauline 34 When play was again resumed, the Modern forwards..did a good dribble into the Classical twenty-five. 1894 Westm. Gaz. 13 Mar. 5/3 He..collided with an opponent, who had led a dribble down the field. |
3. local. A field drain made of broken stones between which the water trickles. Cf. rubble.
| 1843 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. IV. ii. 325 Stone drains are various; the most common here [in Wiltshire] are wall, and dribble or rubble. 1846 J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4) I. 234 The dribble is made with stones, broken about the size..used for roads, the drain about eight inches wide filled a foot high with the stones. |