What's the difference between nibble and small?

Nibble


Definition:

  • (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.

Small


Definition:

  • (superl.) Having little size, compared with other things of the same kind; little in quantity or degree; diminutive; not large or extended in dimension; not great; not much; inconsiderable; as, a small man; a small river.
  • (superl.) Being of slight consequence; feeble in influence or importance; unimportant; trivial; insignificant; as, a small fault; a small business.
  • (superl.) Envincing little worth or ability; not large-minded; -- sometimes, in reproach, paltry; mean.
  • (superl.) Not prolonged in duration; not extended in time; short; as, after a small space.
  • (superl.) Weak; slender; fine; gentle; soft; not loud.
  • (adv.) In or to small extent, quantity, or degree; little; slightly.
  • (adv.) Not loudly; faintly; timidly.
  • (n.) The small or slender part of a thing; as, the small of the leg or of the back.
  • (n.) Smallclothes.
  • (n.) Same as Little go. See under Little, a.
  • (v. t.) To make little or less.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The effect of insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) on growth of small cell lung cancer (SCLC) cell lines was studied.
  • (2) Such a signal must be due to a small ferromagnetic crystal formed when the nerve is subjected to pressure, such as that due to mechanical injury.
  • (3) The Na+ ionophore, gramicidin, had a small but significant inhibitory effect on Na(+)-dependent KG uptake, demonstrating that KG uptake was not the result of an intravesicular positive Na+ diffusion potential.
  • (4) For some time now, public opinion polls have revealed Americans' strong preference to live in comparatively small cities, towns, and rural areas rather than in large cities.
  • (5) The predicted non-Lorentzian line shapes and widths were found to be in good agreement with experimental results, indicating that the local orientational order (called "packing" by many workers) in the bilayers of small vesicles and in multilamellar membranes is substantially the same.
  • (6) If Charles Spencer, 3rd Duke of Marlborough, who bought the island in 1738, were to return today he would doubtless recognise the scene, though he might be surprised that his small private buildings have grown into a sizable hotel.
  • (7) We conclude that chronic emphysema produced in dogs by aerosol administration of papain results in elevated pulmonary artery pressure, which is characterized pathologically by medial hypertrophy of small pulmonary arteries.
  • (8) As the percentage of rabbit feed is very small compared to the bulk of animal feeds, there is a fair chance that rabbit feed will be contaminated with constituents (additives) of batches previously prepared for other animals.
  • (9) The extent of the infectious process was limited, however, because the life span of the cultures was not significantly shortened, the yields of infectious virus per immunofluorescent cell were at all times low, and most infected cells contained only a few well-delineated small masses of antigen, suggestive of an abortive infection.
  • (10) The small units described here could be inhibitory interneurons which convert the excitatory response of large units into inhibition.
  • (11) Early stabilisation may not ensure normal development but even early splinting carries a small risk of avascular necrosis.
  • (12) Twenty patients with non-small cell bronchogenic carcinoma were prospectively studied for intrathoracic lymphadenopathy using computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
  • (13) In addition, KM231 could detect a small amount of the antigen ganglioside in human gastric normal and cancerous mucosa and in gastric cancer cell lines by HPTLC-immunostaining.
  • (14) Two small populations of GLY + neurons were observed outside of the named nuclei of the SOC; one was located dorsal to the LSO, near its dorsal hilus, and the other was identified near the medial pole of the LSO.
  • (15) Because of the small number of patients reported in the world literature and lack of controlled studies, the treatment of small cell carcinoma of the larynx remains controversial; this retrospective analysis suggests that combination chemotherapy plus radiation offers the best chance for cure.
  • (16) Only small amounts of 3H oleic acid were converted.
  • (17) The pH gradient measured with dimethyloxazolidine-2,4-dione and acetylsalicylic acid was very small in both bacteria at a high pH above 8, and was not affected significantly by the addition of CCCP.
  • (18) The results also indicate that small lesions initially noted only on CT scans of the chest in children with Wilms' tumor frequently represent metastatic tumor.
  • (19) CT scan revealed a small calcified mass in the right maxillary sinus.
  • (20) We have previously shown that intratracheally instilled silica (quartz) produces both morphologic evidence of emphysema and small-airway changes, and functional evidence of airflow obstruction.