pebble

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 (RP)

  (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 606515358, [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. M[acock] for John Starkey […], OCLC 228732398, 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

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 Czech: oblázek (cs) m Danish: ral (da) Dutch: kiezel (nl) 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 (ku) (zîx) Northern Kurdish: zixir (ku) Latgalian: ūļs, akmisteņš Latin: calculus m, lapillus m Latvian: olis 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: guijarro (es) m, canto pelado m, canto rodado m, china (es) f 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: שטײנד‎ m (shteynd)

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; see pebble game.

Translations

To pave with pebbles

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

To deposit water droplets on the ice