(v. t.) To bite by little at a time; to seize gently with the mouth; to eat slowly or in small bits.
(v. t.) To bite upon something gently or cautiously; to eat a little of a thing, as by taking small bits cautiously; as, fishes nibble at the bait.
(n.) A small or cautious bite.
Example Sentences:
(1) Within an hour after nibbling a small test meal, the flux of glucose C into total body fatty acids increased 700% in mice previously starved for 24 hr.
(2) By noon, the small fish market on shore is packed with black crows nibbling on hundreds of butchered fish heads, shark fins and long red swordfish tongues.
(3) Across this relatively peaceful corner of the Horn of Africa, where black-headed sheep scamper among the thorn bushes, dainty gerenuk balance on their hind legs to nibble from hardy shrubs, and skinny camels wearing rough-hewn bells lumber over rocky slopes, people long accustomed to a harsh environment find they cannot cope after years of below-average rainfall.
(4) £25 a head for a cocktail, nibbles and three courses.
(5) variable (VH), diversity (DH), and joining (JH), germline gene segments, exonuclease nibbling of the terminals of these gene segments, and the addition of template-independent nucleotide (N-sequences) in the junctions of these segments.
(6) As daylight recedes, men of a certain age sip coffee, nibble on finger dishes or grapple with big round plates of rice and lamb, all the while bouncing opinions back and forth.
(7) It appears that CR caused mice to change from their normal "nibbling behavior" to meal feeding.
(8) Although this effect does not appear to result from antineophobic and anxiolytic effects of this benzodiazepine, very little is known about the possible contribution of stereotyped nibbling and chewing responses to enhanced feeding.
(9) On another, they celebrated her birthday at home with Jill Norman, David's long-time editor, and a bottle of Dom Pérignon, nibbling all the while on her favourite Roka cheese biscuits.
(10) It is concluded that these goats have a feeding habit similar to that of cattle rather than resting their forelimbs on the shrubs while nibbling the leaves as recorded in Asian goats.
(11) The flux of glucose C to TLFA increased by an order of magnitude within an hour after mice nibbled a test meal for several minutes.
(12) It was found that feeding behavior between meals (snacks, nibbling, etc.)
(13) He tried to eat some more of his kebab but was confused and began to nibble on the flyerer's thumb.
(14) As Shallow, he “pecks at the lines, nibbles at them like a parrot biting on a nut; for all his age, he darts here and there nimbly enough, even skittishly: forgetting nothing, not even the pleasure of Falstaff’s page, that ‘little tiny thief’.” But if Tynan was enamoured of Olivier, he was also alert to the miniaturist precision of Alec Guinness.
(15) Comparisons between present-day China and the soulless, dreary totalitarian socialist state immortalised in Orwell's masterpiece are difficult to sustain after seeing clutch after clutch of Chinese teenagers, dressed in the latest quasi-Japanophile fashion, walk down a mobbed Beijing pedestrian shopping arcade nibbling at bouquets of candy floss and prattling on as if the phrase "commodity fetishism" had never crossed their young lips.
(16) Just about everything – from what to serve, to how to eat, nothing brings out more social judgment than nibbles etiquette.
(17) The young Caligula spent six years on the island of Capri, where he often directed and appeared in spectacular pornographic tableaux for his great uncle, the emperor Tiberius – a man it was said, who enjoyed having swimming boys nibble at his private parts.
(18) Recordings were made for 96-h periods, and nibbling bouts were separated from meals according to the time and weight of eating bouts.
(19) We have attempted to measure net changes in lipid content in a discrete "intermuscular" fat pad during rapid lipogenic activation that occurs after a previously fasted mouse nibbles a glucose-rich test meal for several minutes.
(20) A case report is presented of a patient who had liver fibrosis, splenomegaly and ascites, associated with the habit of nibbling tea leaves.
Nobble
Definition:
Example Sentences:
(1) "It sounds to me as if Spanish officials have succeeded in nobbling this report."
(2) Last October, I was scared that Robert Francis's report into the Mid Staffordshire scandal was being delayed four months because various individuals or bodies had nobbled him, and he would produce an emasculated whitewash (to mix a metaphor outrageously).
(3) SNP members – three out of seven committee members – were not ‘nobbled’ and we did not even have a pre-meeting to discuss how we would vote prior to committee,” he said.
(4) For all the arcana of the system - waiting around for hours, making sure you're walking the right direction through the right hallway - Thornberry knows this is a great time to nobble ministers.
(5) Confirmation of the cap came after Labour accused ministers of allowing the pension industry to "nobble" the reform plans.
(6) The message I’m trying to get across is that the UK government offer is a very fair offer, it’s a very constructive offer and we’re looking to get a deal.” SNP denies 'nobbling' Fiscal Commission's oversight powers Read more The minister said the UK government had wider concerns about the Scottish government’s approach to the fiscal framework and its decision to tie the hands of an external fiscal body likened to Scotland’s version of the Office for Budget Responsibility, which polices UK government budget decisions.
(7) Scolari thought it was a deliberate attempt to nobble his best player.
(8) William Hague nobbled it with court orders stopping the coroner and family hearing what evidence MI6 possessed.
(9) According to Khan, the Tory candidate, Zac Goldsmith MP, is a nice chap who has been nobbled by Lynton “Dog Whistle” Crosby , Cameron’s Australian campaign guru and the thinking man’s Jeremy Clarkson.
(10) Looking at the way the OBR hedges every statement about Brexit in its report, some may suspect Chote has been nobbled to say too little.
(11) That same year, Prohibition agent Eliot Ness began to investigate Capone's affairs, and in October 1931 – after Capone's efforts to nobble the jury had been defeated – he was sentenced to 11 years for tax evasion.
(12) Ciolos is said by EU diplomats to have been "nobbled" by the French, who oppose radical CAP reform.
(13) He then admitted he had never voted and encouraged others not to, in order to nobble the establishment.
(14) McClymont told the Guardian: "The government's botched consultation has allowed vested interests to nobble the tough action required to deliver for Britain's savers."
(15) They provide for the chairs and members of select committees to be directly elected by a secret ballot of MPs, taking the process out of the hands of the party whips which led to allegations of committees being nobbled by the government.
(16) "I seem to remember Iceland winning after nobbling Zaire's Pelé-like talisman, who played in bare feet.
(17) For all his charm, he finds himself ignored by an unfriendly Kremlin, who recently nobbled his attempts to become mayor in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.