nib en · NOUN
Pronunciation
Etymology
From a variant of neb, perhaps due to association with nibble.
Meanings
-
The tip of a pen or tool that touches the surface, transferring ink to paper.
Slowly welling from the point of her gold nib, pale blue ink dissolved the full stop; for there her pen stuck; her eyes fixed, and tears slowly filled them.
1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, chapter 1, in Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960, →OCLC:Ford, whose often acid nib belied a deep love of all things Iberian, is one of 20 British authors profiled in a new Spanish book[…].
2025 April 20, Sam Jones, “‘Their pursuits are the cigar and the siesta’: how two centuries of British writers helped forge our view of Spain”, in The Observer, →ISSN:
- (dialectal) A bird's beak.
- Bits of trapped dust or other foreign material that form imperfections in painted or varnished surfaces.
- A piece of a roasted, hulled cocoa bean.
-
A small and pointed thing or part; a point; a prong.
the little nib or fructifying principle
1658, Thomas Browne, The Garden of Cyrus:
- One of the handles projecting from a scythe snath.
- The shaft of a wagon.
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| nibs | Number=Plur | lexicographic | |
| knib | alternative, obsolete | lexicographic |
Deriveds
nib sugar · nibmeister · renib · niblick · nib-cove · nibless · nib pen · denib · nibber · nipple · niblet · niblike
Relateds
Synonyms
Translations (61)
bg перо (tip of a pen) · sv pennspets (tip of a pen) · hu tollhegy (tip of a pen) · es plumín (tip of a pen) · nl penpunt (tip of a pen) · bg човка (bill of a bird) · el μύτη πένας (tip of a pen) · hi क़त (tip of a pen) · pt bico (bill of a bird) · da pennespids (tip of a pen) · cmn 筆尖 /笔尖 (tip of a pen) · ko 펜촉 (tip of a pen) · hi जीभी (tip of a pen) · nb pennesplitt (tip of a pen) · ro peniță (tip of a pen) · it rostro (bill of a bird) · nn pennesplitt (tip of a pen) · es plumilla (tip of a pen) · fr bec (bill of a bird) · cy nib (tip of a pen) · th ปลาย (tip of a pen) · hy գրչածայր (tip of a pen) · hi जीभ (tip of a pen) · fr plume (tip of a pen) · eu lumatxo (tip of a pen) · cmn 鋼筆尖 /钢笔尖 (tip of a pen) · es pluma (tip of a pen) · de Federspitze (tip of a pen) · eo plumo (tip of a pen) · ca plomí (tip of a pen) · it pennino (tip of a pen) · it becco (bill of a bird) · fi nokka (bill of a bird) · de Schnabel (bill of a bird) · sk hrot (tip of a pen) · ru остриё пера́ (tip of a pen) · pl stalówka (tip of a pen) · ru клюв (bill of a bird) · lv spalva (tip of a pen) · pt ponta (tip of a pen) · sh шиљак (tip of a pen) · sv näbb (bill of a bird) · ga gob (tip of a pen) · tr kalem ucu (tip of a pen) · fi kynänkärki (tip of a pen) · sh šiljak (tip of a pen) · el πέννα (tip of a pen) · lt plunksna (tip of a pen) · bg писец (tip of a pen) · lv rakstāmspalva (tip of a pen) · it punta (tip of a pen) · no nebb (bill of a bird) · es pico (bill of a bird) · km ចុង (tip of a pen) · et nokaots (bill of a bird) · et kirjutussulg (tip of a pen) · hi डंक (tip of a pen) · mi mata tuhi (tip of a pen) · ja ペン先 (tip of a pen) · ca bec (bill of a bird) · cs hrot (tip of a pen)