[nib-uh
l] 
verb, -bled, -bling, noun | 1. | to bite off small bits. |
| 2. | to eat or chew in small bites: Give him a graham cracker to nibble on. |
| 3. | to bite, eat, or chew gently and in small amounts (usually fol. by at): She was so upset she could only nibble at her food. |
| 4. | to bite off small bits of (something). |
| 5. | to eat (food) by biting off small pieces. |
| 6. | to bite in small bits: He nibbled each morsel with great deliberation. |
| 7. | a small morsel or bit: Each nibble was eaten with the air of an epicure. |
| 8. | an act or instance of nibbling. |
| 9. | a response by a fish to bait on a fishing line. |
| 10. | any preliminary positive response or reaction. |
| 11. | nibble away at, to cause to decrease or diminish bit by bit: Inflation was nibbling away at her savings. The rains nibbled at the loam. Also, nibble at. |
| nib·ble (nĭb'əl) v. nib·bled, nib·bling, nib·bles v. tr.
To take small or hesitant bites: fish nibbling at the bait. n.
[Middle English nebyllen; akin to Low German nibbelen.] nib'bler n. |
nibble data
/nib'l/ (US "nybble", by analogy with "bite" -> "byte") Half a byte. Since a byte is nearly always eight bits, a nibble is nearly always four bits (and can therefore be represented by one hex digit).
Other size nibbles have existed, for example the BBC Microcomputer disk file system used eleven bit sector numbers which were described as one byte (eight bits) and a nibble (three bits).
Compare crumb, tayste, dynner; see also bit, nickle, deckle.
The spelling "nybble" is uncommon in Commonwealth Hackish as British orthography suggests the pronunciation /ni:'bl/.
(1997-12-03)
