English Explanatory Dictionary

nimble

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj
  1. Adept at taking or grasping.
  2. Quick and light in movement or action.
  3. Quickwitted and alert.
verb
  1. To move nimbly.

Pronunciation

/ˈnɪmbəl/ [ˈnɪmbəl] ~ [ˈnɪmbl̩] LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-nimble.wav

Word forms

nimble nimbler nimblest nimbles nimbling nimbled

Etymology

From Middle English nymyl, nemel, nemyll, nymell (“agile, quick, ready, able, capable”), merger of Old English nǣmel (“receptive, quick to grasp”) and Old English numol (“able to take, capable of holding”), both from niman (“to take”) + -el, -ol (associative suffix), corresponding to nim + -le. Compare German nehmen, Gothic 𐌽𐌹𐌼𐌰𐌽 (niman), Old Norse nema (“to take”). More at nim.

Antonyms

sluggish

Derived words

nimbility nimble-chops nimble-fingered nimbleness nimblesome nimblewill nimble-witted nimbly overnimble unnimble
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on N Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary