pebble

English

Pebbles on a beach.

Etymology

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?)

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈpɛb.əl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛbəl

Noun

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 (lyrics and music), “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)

Derived terms

• pebble-bed reactor
• pebble-dash
• pebble dash
• pebble in one's shoe
• pebble lens
• pebble mill
• pebble plant
• pebble toad
• pebbly
• snatch the pebble

 

Translations

stone

• Afrikaans: spoelklippie, kiesel
• Albanian: çakëll (sq) m, hakëll m
• Arabic: حَصَاة f (ḥaṣāh)

  Egyptian Arabic: حصوة f (ḥaṣwa)

  Hijazi Arabic: حَصْوة f (ḥaṣwa)

• Aromanian: chitritseauã f
• Brunei Malay: batu
• Bulgarian: гладко камъче (gladko kamǎče)
• Catalan: còdol (ca) m, mac (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 石仔 (sek⁶ zai²)

  Mandarin: 礫石 / 砾石 (zh) (lìshí), 石子 (zh) (shízǐ), 卵石 (zh) (luǎnshí), 鵝卵石 / 鹅卵石 (zh) (éluǎnshí)

• Classical Nahuatl: ātōyātetl
• Cornish: bili (collective), bilien f
• Czech: oblázek (cs) m
• Danish: ral (da)
• Dutch: kiezel (nl), kei (nl) m, steen (nl) m
• Esperanto: ŝtoneto
• Estonian: veeris
• Finnish: pikkukivi
• Franco-Provençal: calyou
• French: galet (fr) m (on a beach), caillou (fr) m
• Galician: seixo m, pelouro (gl) m, louro (gl) m, callau m, sento m, radego m, brello m, candollo m, xógara f, salavedro m, coio (gl) m, rebo m
• Georgian: კენჭი (ḳenč̣i)
• German: Stein (de) m, Steinchen (de) n, Kiesel (de) m, Kieselstein (de) m
• Greek:

  Ancient: ψῆφος f (psêphos), χάλιξ m or f (khálix)

• Hebrew: חַלּוּק (he) m (ẖalúq)
• Hindi: पथ्थर m (paththar)
• Hungarian: kavics (hu)
• Icelandic: steinn (is)
• Ido: stono (io), stoneto (io)
• Indonesian: kerikil (id)
• Irish: méaróg f
• Italian: ciottolo (it) m
• Japanese: 小石 (ja) (こいし, koishi)
• Javanese: please add this translation if you can
• Kazakh: жұмыр тас (jūmyr tas)
• Korean: 자갈 (ko) (jagal)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: زیخ (zîx)

  Northern Kurdish: zixir (ku)

• Latgalian: ūļs, akmisteņš
• Latin: calculus m, lapillus m
• Latvian: olis
• Lithuanian: akmenukas, žvirgždas, gargždas
• Luxembourgish: Wak m, Kiselsteen m
• Macedonian: камче n (kamče)
• Maltese: ċagħqa f
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Navajo: tséʼáwózí
• Norman: galet m, galot m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: småstein m, småsten m

  Nynorsk: småstein m

• Persian: سنگریزه (fa) (sangrize), ریگ (fa) (rig)
• Polish: kamyk (pl) m, kamyczek (pl) m (diminutive)
• Portuguese: seixo (pt), pedregulho (pt) m, pedrinha (pt) f
• Romanian: pietricică (ro) f, pietriș (ro) n, prundiș (ro) n
• Russian: га́лька (ru) f (gálʹka)
• Scottish Gaelic: dèideag f
• Sicilian: timpa (scn) f, pitruzza f, pitruzzeḍḍa f
• Slovak: okruhliak m
• Spanish: chunk of stone: canto (es) m; smooth canto: canto pelado m, canto rodado (es) m; small canto rodado: guijarro (es) m, peladilla (es) f, callao m, codón (es) m (Spain), ripio (es) m; small guijarro: morro (es) m; small stone: china (es) f, guija f, aguija (es) f, chino (es) m (Spain); larger china: chinarro m; cylindrical canto rodado: rollo (es);
• Swedish: småsten (sv) c
• Tagalog: mikbato
• Tajik: шағал (tg) (šaġal)
• Thai: กรวด (th) (grùat)
• Turkish: çakıl (tr)
• Ukrainian: га́лька f (hálʹka)
• Welsh: carreg gron (cy) f
• Yiddish: שטיינדל n (shteyndl), שטיינדעלע n (shteyndele)

rock fragment between 4 and 64 millimetres in diameter

• French: gravillon (fr) m
• Macedonian: чакал m (čakal), грагор m (gragor)
• Norwegian: grus (no) m, pukk
• Polish: otoczak (pl) m
• Portuguese: seixo (pt) m

small droplet of water intentionally sprayed on the ice

Verb

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.

Translations

To pave with pebbles

• Catalan: empedrar (ca)
• Finnish: päällystää mukulakivillä
• Galician: chapacuñar
• Italian: acciottolare (it)
• Norwegian: gruslegge
• Spanish: empedrar (es)

To deposit water droplets on the ice