nibs
nibs Lexical Profile
nibs Game Scores & Validity
• noun
Small crushed pieces of roasted cocoa beans, coffee beans, or other food items.
"The pastry chef sprinkled roasted cacao nibs over the chocolate mousse for added crunch."
The pointed metal ends of fountain pens or dip pens that distribute ink onto a writing surface.
"Calligraphers keep a variety of interchangeable nibs on hand to create different line widths."
A self-important, pretentious, or authoritative person, typically used mockingly after a possessive pronoun such as "his" or "your".
"Everyone in the office had to wait until his nibs finally arrived to start the meeting."
• verb
To furnish a pen with a point or sharpen the point of a quill.
"He carefully nibs the goose quill before dipping it into the inkwell."
Word Nuance & Usage
When referring to a self-important person, "nibs" is almost always preceded by a possessive pronoun such as "his" or "your" (as in "his nibs").
• Rhymes for nibs
Word Origin & Etymology
Derived from the noun "nib" (a variant of "neb," from Old English "nebb" meaning beak or nose), while the slang sense meaning a person of importance arose in early 19th-century British cant.