drabble

See also: Drabble

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɹæbəl/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æbəl

Etymology 1

From Middle English drabelan.

Verb

drabble (third-person singular simple present drabbles, present participle drabbling, simple past and past participle drabbled)

1. (transitive) To wet or dirty, especially by dragging through mud.
   • 1599, [Thomas] Nashe, Nashes Lenten Stuffe, […], London: […] [Thomas Judson and Valentine Simmes] for N[icholas] L[ing] and C[uthbert] B[urby] […], →OCLC, pages 5–6:

     That which eſpecialleſt nouriſht the moſt prime pleaſure in me, was after a ſtorme when they were driuen inſwarmes, and lay close peſtred together as thicke as they could packe; the next day following, if it were faire, they would cloud the whole skie with canuas, by ſpreading their drabled ſailes in the full clue abroad a drying, and make a brauer ſhew with them, then ſo many banners and ſtreamers diſplayed againſt the Sunne on a mountaine top.

2. (intransitive) To fish with a long line and rod.

   to drabble for barbels

Derived terms

• drabble-tail

Etymology 2

From a word game in Monty Python's Big Red Book in which the first player to write a novel wins; the UK Science Fiction fandom agreed that 100 words will suffice; not, as is sometimes stated, from the surname of the author Margaret Drabble.

Noun

drabble (plural drabbles)

1. A short fictional story, typically in fan fiction, sometimes exactly 100 words long.

Usage notes

The "100 words" limit is the original meaning, although in practice (and drabble purists have denounced this extension), it frequently extends up to around 500 words, with a variety of limits used.

Synonyms

• flash fiction, flashfic, microfiction, short short story, spamfic, sudden fiction

Further reading

• An example of a German-language drabble

See also

• “drabble”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• “drabble”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

Anagrams

• barbled, dabbler, rabbled