Nibble vs Shear - What's the difference?
nibble | shear |
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)
To cut, originally with a sword or other bladed weapon, now usually with shears, or as if using shears.
* 1819 , Walter Scott, Ivanhoe :
* Shakespeare
To remove the fleece from a sheep etc by clipping.
(physics) To deform because of shearing forces.
(Scotland) To reap, as grain.
(figurative) To deprive of property; to fleece.
a cutting tool similar to scissors, but often larger
* Dryden
the act of shearing, or something removed by shearing
* Youatt
(physics) a force that produces a shearing strain
(geology) The response of a rock to deformation usually by compressive stress, resulting in particular textures.
As nouns the difference between nibble and shear
is that nibble is a small, quick bite taken with the front teeth or nibble can be (computing) a unit of memory equal to half a byte, or four bitshttp://foldocorg/nibble while shear is a cutting tool similar to scissors, but often larger.As verbs the difference between nibble and shear
is that nibble is to eat with small, quick bites while shear is to cut, originally with a sword or other bladed weapon, now usually with shears, or as if using shears.As an adjective shear is
.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
shear
English
(wikipedia shear)Verb
- So trenchant was the Templar’s weapon, that it shore asunder, as it had been a willow twig, the tough and plaited handle of the mace, which the ill-fated Saxon reared to parry the blow, and, descending on his head, levelled him with the earth.
- the golden tresses were shorn away
- (Jamieson)
Noun
(en noun)- short of the wool, and naked from the shear
- After the second shearing, he is a two-shear' ram; at the expiration of another year, he is a three-' shear ram; the name always taking its date from the time of shearing.
