Nibble vs Pick - What's the difference?
nibble | pick |
A small, quick bite taken with the front teeth.
(in the plural, nibbles) Small snacks such as crisps/potato chips or nuts, often eaten to accompany drinks.
To eat with small, quick bites.
* 2 November 2014 , Alex James in (The Guardian),
*:Giant parrots nibbled seed from the children's fingertips and my sister peeled a couple of satsumas for the lemurs.
* 1911 , (Rudyard Kipling), Big Steamers
*:"For the bread that you eat and the biscuits you nibble ,
*:The sweets that you suck and the joints that you carve,
*:They are brought to you daily by all us Big Steamers--
*:And if anyone hinders our coming you'll starve!"
To bite lightly.
To consume gradually.
* 11 May 2011 , Ann Carrns in The (New York Times),
*:A report out this week from the National Consumer Law Center lays out a host of ways in which banks nibble away at jobless benefits with fees the center called “junk.”
(computing) A unit of memory equal to half a byte, or four bits.http://foldoc.org/nibble
* 1993 , Richard E. Haskell, Introduction to computer engineering (page 287)
A tool used for digging; a pickaxe.
A tool for unlocking a lock without the original key; a lock pick, picklock.
A comb with long widely spaced teeth, for use with tightly curled hair.
A choice; ability to choose.
* Lord Lytton
That which would be picked or chosen first; the best.
(basketball) A screen.
(lacrosse) An offensive tactic in which a player stands so as to block a defender from reaching a teammate.
(American football) An interception.
(baseball) A good defensive play by an infielder.
(baseball) A pickoff.
(music) A tool used for strumming the strings of a guitar; a plectrum.
A pointed hammer used for dressing millstones.
(obsolete) A pike or spike; the sharp point fixed in the center of a buckler.
* Beaumont and Fletcher
(printing, dated) A particle of ink or paper embedded in the hollow of a letter, filling up its face, and causing a spot on a printed sheet.
(art, painting) That which is picked in, as with a pointed pencil, to correct an unevenness in a picture.
(weaving) The blow that drives the shuttle, used in calculating the speed of a loom (in picks per minute); hence, in describing the fineness of a fabric, a weft thread.
To grasp and pull with the fingers or fingernails.
To harvest a fruit or vegetable for consumption by removing it from the plant to which it is attached; to harvest an entire plant by removing it from the ground.
To pull apart or away, especially with the fingers; to pluck.
To take up; especially, to gather from here and there; to collect; to bring together.
To remove something from with a pointed instrument, with the fingers, or with the teeth.
* Shakespeare
* Cowper
To decide upon, from a set of options; to select.
(cricket) To recognise the type of ball being bowled by a bowler by studying the position of the hand and arm as the ball is released.
(music) To pluck the individual strings of a musical instrument or to play such an instrument.
To open (a lock) with a wire, lock pick, etc.
To eat slowly, sparingly, or by morsels; to nibble.
* Dryden
To do anything nicely or carefully, or by attending to small things; to select something with care.
To steal; to pilfer.
* Book of Common Prayer
(obsolete) To throw; to pitch.
* Shakespeare
(dated) To peck at, as a bird with its beak; to strike at with anything pointed; to act upon with a pointed instrument; to pierce; to prick, as with a pin.
To separate or open by means of a sharp point or points.
As nouns the difference between nibble and pick
is that nibble is a small, quick bite taken with the front teeth while pick is a tool used for digging; a pickaxe.As verbs the difference between nibble and pick
is that nibble is to eat with small, quick bites while pick is to grasp and pull with the fingers or fingernails.nibble
English
Etymology 1
Perhaps from (etyl) .Noun
(en noun)Derived terms
* nibblyVerb
(nibbl)- The rabbit nibbled the lettuce.
The day I came face-to-face with a tiger
- He nibbled at my neck and made me shiver.
Prepaid Cards Subject Jobless to Host of Fees
Etymology 2
From nibble', punning on the homophony of '''byte''' and ' biteAlternative forms
* nybbleNoun
(en noun)- That is, the lower nibble (the 4 bits 1010 = A) has been masked to zero.
References
pick
English
(wikipedia pick)Noun
(en noun)- France and Russia have the pick of our stables.
- Take down my buckler and grind the pick on 't.
- (MacKellar)
- so many picks to an inch
Derived terms
* pickaxe * take one's pick * toothpickVerb
(en verb)- Don't pick at that scab.
- He picked his nose.
- It's time to pick the tomatoes.
- She picked flowers in the meadow.
- to pick feathers from a fowl
- to pick rags
- to pick''' the teeth; to '''pick''' a bone; to '''pick''' a goose; to '''pick a pocket
- Did you pick Master Slender's purse?
- He picks clean teeth, and, busy as he seems / With an old tavern quill, is hungry yet.
- I'll pick the one with the nicest name.
- He didn't pick the googly, and was bowled.
- He picked a tune on his banjo.
- Why stand'st thou picking ? Is thy palate sore?
- to keep my hands from picking and stealing
- as high as I could pick my lance
- to pick matted wool, cotton, oakum, etc.