pebble

From Middle English pibel (also in pibleston), from Old English papolstān (“pebble-stone”), from Old English *papol, *pyppel, *pæbbel of unknown origin + Old English stān. Compare Albanian popël. (Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈpɛb.əl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛbəl

pebble (countable and uncountable, plural pebbles)

1. A small stone, especially one rounded by the action of water.
   • c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:

     Then let the pebbles on the hungry beach
     Fillip the stars;

   • 1671, John Milton, “The First Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 4:

     And trifles for choice matters, worth a sponge;
     As children gathering pebbles on the shore.

2. (geology) A particle from 4 to 64 mm in diameter, following the Wentworth scale.
3. (curling) A small droplet of water intentionally sprayed on the ice that cause irregularities on the surface.
4. Transparent and colourless rock crystal.

   Brazilian pebble

5. A form of slow-burning gunpowder in large cubical grains.

   Synonyms: cube powder, prismatic powder

6. (slang) A small piece of crack cocaine.

   Synonym: (clipping) peb

   Coordinate term: rock (“crystallized lump of crack cocaine”)

   • 2019 February 22, Giggs, “You Ain't…” (track 13), in Big Bad…, performed by Giggs:

     You ain't got your Glock for the summer / And you ain't gonna pop for your gunner / You ain't in the whip with them pebbles (Nah) / You ain't on the strip with the rebels (Nah)

pebble (third-person singular simple present pebbles, present participle pebbling, simple past and past participle pebbled)

1. (transitive) To pave with pebbles.
2. (transitive, curling) To deposit water droplets on the ice.

   to pebble the ice between games

3. (transitive) To give (leather) a rough appearance with small rounded prominences.
4. (transitive, graph theory) To place a pebble at (a vertex of a graph) according to certain rules, in a pebble game.