Nibble

Definitions

1. An act of taking a small, quick bite, or several of such bites, especially with the front teeth; the bite or bites so taken.
2. A unit of memory equal to half a byte, or chiefly four bits.
3. A light bite of a person or animal, or part of their body, especially one which is loving or playful; a nip.
4. An amount of food that is or can be taken into the mouth through a small bite; a small mouthful.
5. A slight show of interest in something, such as a commercial opportunity or a proposal.
   figuratively
6. Grass or other vegetation eaten by livestock; forage, pasturage.
   obsolete, rare

Equivalents

24 more languages

العربيةإقضمقضم

Българскигризаотхапвамха́пка

Bosanskifalat

Češtinahlodat

Ελληνικάροκανίζωτσιμπολόγηματσιμπολογώ

Esperantomordeti

Suomihaukkaushuitaistanakertaanäykkäistänäykkiäpuraisupurra+ 4 more

Gàidhligcriom

GalegoamordicaramosegarbeliscarchanchoChantadacomicharpetiscarpetiscotrabadela+ 6 more

Hrvatskifalat

Magyarfalat

Հայերենկրծել

Italianobocconcinobocconemordicchiaremorsettomorsorosicarerosicchiaresemibyteunità di 4 bit+ 6 more

日本語ニブル甘噛みする齕

ភាសាខ្មែរកកេរចឹក

Монголмэрэх

Nederlandsknabbelennibble

Portuguêsbeliscadacomiscarmordiscarmordisconibble+ 2 more

Русскийгрызтьнибблполуба́йттетра́да+ 1 more

Српскиfalat

Svenskaknapra

Türkçedişlemedişlemek

Українськанапівба́йт

Tiếng Việtnhấm nhápnhâm nhi

Examples

“[H]e would sit⟳ on a wet⟳ rock, with a rod as long and heavy as a Tartar's lance, and fish⟳ all day without a murmur, even though he should not be encouraged by a single nibble.”

“Yo'r sheep will be a' folded, a reckon, Measter Pratt, for there'll ne'er be a nibble o' grass to be seen this two month, according to my reading; […]”

“On the northern slopes of the light-earthed hills the moss had come⟳ over the herbage, and the sweet nibble of the sheep was souring.”

“I own⟳ several abaci and two books on how to use⟳ them, but they all have⟳ four counters below the bar and one counter above it. […] The bottom four counters of each abacus can be used to represent⟳ a "nybble," and the upper counter on each can be used for parity.”

“At every negative-going transition it reads a 4-bit ADPCM nybble (there are 2 nybbles per byte) and stores it in a memory-resident table.”

“Data is being received by a system in serial sequences of four bit nybbles. (A nybble is usually defined as a four bit grouping.) […] Our mission, should we decide⟳ to accept⟳ it, is to test⟳ each nybble and determine⟳ whether or not the four bits constitute a valid BCD (8421) number⟳.”

“Each pixel has an integer gray scale value associated with it to indicate⟳ its shade of gray. […] Gray scale values can be stored in either 4 bits (nibble) or 8 bits (byte).”

“That is, the lower nibble (the 4 bits 1010 = A) has been masked to zero.”

“Similarly, it's easy to convert a binary number⟳ such as %1100011010110010 into its hexadecimal equivalent. All we have⟳ to do is to split⟳ the binary value into 4-bit nybbles and to map each nybble onto its corresponding hexadecimal digit.”

“A nibble is a collection of four bits. It wouldn't be a particularly interesting data structure⟳ except for two items: BCD (binary coded decimal) numbers and hexadecimal numbers. It takes four bits to represent⟳ a single BCD or hexadecimal digit. With a nibble, one can represent⟳ up to 16 distinct values. […] [H]exadecimal and BCD digits are the primary items we can represent⟳ with a single nibble.”

“Each half [of a byte], a group of four consecutive bits, called a semibyte or nibble, is represented by a unique hexadecimal digit; for instance: 00101101 = 0x2D. The high nibble contains the most-significant four bits: 0010 = 0x2. The low nibble contains the least-significant four bits: 1101 = 0xD.”

CEFR level