NIB • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Nib

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/nɪb/ Listen

noun

Neb n. (Also written nib) The nose; the snout; the mouth; the beak of a bird; a nib, as of a pen.

Nib n.

A small and pointed thing or part; a point; a prong. "The little nib or fructifying principle."

(Zool.) The bill or beak of a bird; the neb.

The points of a pen; also, the pointed part of a pen; a short pen adapted for insertion in a holder.

One of the handles which project from a scythe snath; also, (Prov. Eng.), The shaft of a wagon.

pl. See his nibs, below.

his nibs Someone who gives a command or makes a demand, often one who acts in a self-important manner, sometimes one with authority; used mockingly as a jocose term, as if a title of honor, but not usually in the presence of the person referred to, and usually indicating resentment or contempt. (Colloq.)

verb

Nib v. t. (past & past part. nebbed; pres. part. nibbing) To furnish with a nib; to point; to mend the point of; as, to nib a pen.

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Etymology of 'Nib'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Nib" Quotes from Famous Books

... stormy days of his youth the old man had been a "Black Nib." The Black Nibs were the persons who agitated against the French war; and the public feeling against them ran strong and deep. In Thrums the local Black Nibs were burned in effigy, and whenever they put ...

— Auld Licht Idyls • J.M. Barrie

... orange-colored auriclas. "My dear madam," said he, "sit down. The matter stands thus: In the first place your writer of intensities must have very black ink, and a very big pen, with a very blunt nib. And, mark me, Miss Psyche Zenobia!" he continued, after a pause, with the most expressive energy and solemnity of manner, "mark me!—that pen—must—never be mended! Herein, madam, lies the secret, the soul, of intensity. I assume upon myself to say, that no individual, of however great genius ...

— The Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Volume 4 (of 5) of the Raven Edition • Edgar Allan Poe

... says to Harshaw and me, who are looking over her shoulder, "that would be the size of him in my sketch." She points to the marginal pencil-mark, which is not longer than the nib of a stub-pen. "I can't make a little black dot like ...

— A Touch Of Sun And Other Stories • Mary Hallock Foote

... he! He's a burnin' shame, and a stinkin' lamp; for the grace o' God wasna hauden to the nib o' 'm lang eneuch to set him in a low (flame), but only lang eneuch to gar the ile o' 'm reek fit to scomfish (suffocate) ...

— Alec Forbes of Howglen • George MacDonald

... very gay beginning for a young officer's active service, but Gordon, like his mother, had a way of making the best of things. Even when, as he wrote, the ink was frozen, and he broke the nib of his pen as he dipped it, "There are really no hardships for the officers," he wrote home; ...

— The Story of General Gordon • Jeanie Lang

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