▪ I. rubble, n.
(ˈrʌb(ə)l)
Forms: 4 robyl, 5 -oyll, robill, -el(l, -elle; 5 rubel, 6 rubell, 7 ruble, rubbil, 6–7 rubbel(l, 6– rubble.
[Of obscure origin; app. related in some way to rubbish.]
1. Waste fragments of stone, esp. as constituting the rubbish of decayed or demolished buildings; † also, rubbish, or refuse in general.
| a 1400 Little Red Bk. Bristol (1900) II. 31 Cum fimo et robyl quod admouere faciant infra tres dies. 1436–7 Abingdon Rolls (Camden) 113 Pro roboyll extra domum cariando. c 1440 Pallad. on Husb. i. 340 On part of lyme and tweyne of rubel haue. c 1495 The Epitaffe, etc. in Skelton's Wks. (1843) II. 390 In a graue in the grounde Deth depe hath [him] drounde Among robel and stonys. 1531–2 Act 23 Hen. VIII, c. 8 §1 Whiche persons..conueied..grauell, stone, robell, earth, slime, and filthe in the said portes. 1593 Norden Spec. Brit., M'sex ii. 25 A hautie citie..smothered in the ashes of her owne rubble and ruynes. 1614 Raleigh Hist. World ii. 311 There are found..goodly Marble pillars, with other hewne and carved stone in great aboundance among the Rubble. 1666 in Misc. Curiosa (1708) III. 182 One can see nothing..but old ruined Walls with Rubbel, Bricks and Stones. |
| 1855 Kingsley Westw. Ho! xxx, A pop-gun fort, which a third class steamer would shell into rubble for an afternoon's amusement. 1863 Trevelyan Compet. Wallah (1866) 260 Those are..the sand and rubble that overspread the land. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 363/1 Other kinds of ballast, such as rubble, are sometimes difficult to obtain. |
| fig. 1567 Jewel Def. Apol. To the Queen A iiij, To refourme his Churche from that..lothesome heape of filthe, and rubble. 1589 Cooper Admon. 249 Casting out the rubble of the Synagogue of Antichriste. a 1618 Sylvester Panaretus 621 Even while I raze, I raise; and, of the Rubble Of petty States, I build one hundred double. |
† b. Med. Fragments of a calculus. Obs.
| 1545 T. Raynalde Byrth Mankynde 29 When it is broken,..the grauel, rubbell, or peecis therof, descend from the raynes or kydnees in to the bladder. 1561 Hollybush Hom. Apoth. 39 If the rubbel or shardes of the stone do put the to payn, then vse that bath. |
2. Pieces of undressed stone used in the construction of walls, esp. as a filling-in.
| 1565 Cooper Thesaurus, Caementitius,..made of rubbell or ragge stones. 1608 J. King Serm. Ps. xi. 2–4. 20 Peeces of timber, barres of iron, massy stones, togither with all..the rubble and stones in the wals of that great and glorious pile. 1764 Smollett Trav. (1766) I. xxiii. 353 The houses are built of a ragged stone dug from the mountains, and the interstices are filled with rubble. 1793 Smeaton Edystone L. §114 The interior filling of the walls was with rough Rubble, and fragments of the quarries. 1839 Stonehouse Isle of Axholme 265 In the walls, which are scarcely ten feet high and built chiefly of rubble, are great ashlar stones. a 1878 Sir G. Scott Lect. Archit. (1879) I. 20 They were equally at home in the use of brick, or flint, or rubble. |
b. ellipt. Rubble-work.
| 1815 J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art I. 223 The best kind, or coursed rubble, admits of bond timbers without difficulty. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. I. 97/1 In uncoursed rubble.., stones of any size..are used without any reference to their heights. |
3. Geol. Loose angular stones or fragments of broken material forming the upper covering of some rocks, and found beneath alluvium or overlying soil; also, water-worn stones.
| [a 1728 Woodward Fossils i. 12 Those call'd Rubble-Stones. Note. They owe their Name, Rubble, to their being thus rubb'd and worn.] 1796 W. H. Marshall W. Engl. II. 5 The subsoil is also similar:—namely, a slatey rock, and a kind of rusty rotten slate, or rubble. 1852 Lyell Elem. Geol. (ed. 4) vii. 81 To this mass the provincial name of ‘rubble’ or ‘brash’ is given. 1860 Maury Phys. Geog. i. 15 Treating the rocks less gently, it..rolls, and rubs them until they are fashioned into pebbles, rubble, or boulders. 1879 D. M. Wallace Australasia iv. 74 The few inches of surface soil and rubble overlying the Silurian rock on the slopes and spurs of the hills. |
b. local. A hard chalk often used in making field-roads.
| 1879 Jefferies Wild Life ii. 20 The byroads and paths made with the chalk or ‘rubble’ glare in the sunlight. |
c. pl. Small coal; slack.
| 1883 Gresley Gloss. Coal-mining 207. |
d. (See quots.)
| 1876 Nature 9 Nov. 31/1 The head of the bay..was filled with pack ice consisting of numerous small floe pieces..intermixed with ‘rubble’, or ‘boulder’ ice. 1886 A. W. Greely 3 Years Arctic Service II. xxxiii. 45 Broken irregular piles of ice are known as rubble, which is the worst of all ice for travel. |
4. (See quot. 1858.)
| 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, Rubbles, a miller's name in some counties for the whole of the bran or outside skin of the wheat, before being sorted into pollard, bran, sharps, etc. 1876 A. H. Hassall Food 361 The principal adulterations of oatmeal..are those with the refuse matter of oats, of barley, and even wheat, termed ‘rubble’ and ‘sharps’. |
5. attrib. a. ‘Of the nature of, consisting of, rubble’, as rubble ballast, rubble coal, rubble granite, etc.; also rubble ice (see 3 d).
| 1712 Phil. Trans. XXVII. 542 A dark, gray, hard Iron Oar, called the Rubble Iron-Stone. 1844 A. W. Pugin in Purcell Life & Lett. A. P. de Lisle (1900) I. iv. 82 From the nature of the material used—a sort of rubble granite. 1855 J. Phillips Man. Geol. 193 Heathen and rubble coals and partings. 1889 Welch Text Bk. Naval Archit. ii. 27 A ship having this characteristic may be rendered stable in the upright position by the introduction of rubble or water ballast low down in the ship. |
b. ‘Constructed of, making use of, rubble’, as rubble building, rubble masonry, rubble wall, etc.
| 1825 J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 537 A wall built of unhewn stone, whether it be built with mortar or otherwise, is called a rubble wall. 1835 Rickman Styles Archit. Engl. (ed. 4) 308 Rubble walling is generally of pieces more nearly approaching a cube. 1844 H. Stephens Bk. Farm I. 170 To test if rubble masonry is well built. 1856 Morton Cycl. Agric. II. 386/1 Breaking joint over every small stone in the wall in rubble building. 1881 S. Walpole Rep. Salmon Fish. App. 77 A rubble weir..has recently been built across the Severn at Llanidloes. |
▪ II. ˈrubble, v.
[f. prec.]
† 1. a. trans. ? To bring to ruin. Obs.—1
| c 1425 Cast. Persev. 1944 in Macro Plays 135 Ȝone rappokis I ruble, & al to-rase; boþe with schot & with slynge I caste with a sleyt, with care to ȝone castel to crachen & to crase. |
b. trans. To reduce to rubble. Also fig. Chiefly in pass. and as ˈrubbled ppl. a.
| 1926 F. M. Ford Man could stand Up i. ii. 37 Things had become more rubbled—mixed up with alarums. 1945 Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Va.) 2 Mar. 1/8 Cologne, rubbled anew after dawn by a thousand British heavy bombers. 1953 Encounter Nov. 52/1 Palaces like Priam's, scarcely now to be identified among the rubbled trenches that were Ilium. 1978 Islands (N.Z.) Aug. 67 O Brave New World..without cities and the bombs to rubble them. |
2. intr. To poke or crawl about among rubbish or refuse. Also fig. Now dial.
| 1637 Bastwick Litany iii. 22 By rubbling and grubbing in those old errors and heresies, you may perhaps get some infection. 1896 Warwickshire Gloss. 196 Don't let the child rubble among them 'ere dusty things. |
3. (See quot.) Now dial.
| 1863 J. R. Wise New Forest Gloss., To Rubble, to remove the gravel, which is deposited throughout the Forest in a thick layer over the beds of clay or marl. |
▪ III. rubble
obs. form of rouble.