pebble

English

Pebbles on a beach.

Etymology

From Old English papol, in papolstān. Apparently close to Albanian popël.

Pronunciation

  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈpɛb.əl/
  • Rhymes: -ɛbəl

Noun

pebble (countable and uncountable, plural pebbles)

  1. A small stone, especially one rounded by the action of water.
    • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare
      the pebbles on the hungry beach
    • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton
      children gathering pebbles on the shore
  2. (geology) A particle from 4 to 64 mm in diameter, following the Wentworth scale.
  3. (curling) A small droplet of water intentionally sprayed on the ice that cause irregularities on the surface.
  4. Transparent and colourless rock crystal.
    Brazilian pebble
  5. A form of slow-burning gunpowder in large cubical grains.
    Synonyms: cube powder, prismatic powder

Translations

Verb

pebble (third-person singular simple present pebbles, present participle pebbling, simple past and past participle pebbled)

  1. (transitive) To pave with pebbles.
  2. (transitive, curling) To deposit water droplets on the ice.
    to pebble the ice between games
  3. (transitive) To give (leather) a rough appearance with small rounded prominences.
  4. (transitive, graph theory) To place a pebble at (a vertex of a graph) according to certain rules; see pebble game.

Translations

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.