gimble
/ˈɡɪmbəl/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.66 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Alternative form of gimbal.
verb
Alternative form of gimbal.
Example Sentences
- "GIMBLE, v. to grin or smile. Though the g in this word is hard […] ]"
- "[…] I'd pull up at the garden-gate to take a bunch of flowers to stick in my buttonhole, and get a smile from ye that seemed to gimble itself through and through my buzzum !"
- "[T]wo fine powdered footmen, all yellow, and green, and gold lace, comed running to open the door [...] one of them, giving a knowing wink to the other, all the same as if they took me for a burglar comed under fictious pretences to make observations. [...] Well, they gimbled at that again. Howsomever, the sight of the money kinder brought one of them to reason, so he took me into Mr. Maplestone's room at last; […]"
- "[1878, Samuel Henry Miller, Sydney Barber Josiah Skertchly, The Fenland, Past and Present, iv Gimble—to grin or smile, (N.)]"
- ""Now then, what are yow gimbling¹ at, young mester?" he said."
- "[…]sometimes they ‘giffle’ (fidget) or ‘gimble’ (grin) […]"
Etymology
Compared by the EDD to dialectal Swedish gimla (“to move the lips in an unseemly manner, to make a wry face, to move the lips awry”). Compare also North Frisian gēmeli (“to move the lips before laughing”). Nall compares Old English ginian; the hard g in this form needs explanation (its standard English descendant is yawn), though the EDD does record a variant form jimble (/ˈjɪmbəl/).