Nib

//nɪb// adj, noun, verb, slang

adj, noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The tip of a pen or tool that touches the surface, transferring ink to paper.

    "Slowly welling from the point of her gold nib, pale blue ink dissolved the full stop; for there her pen stuck; her eyes fixed, and tears slowly filled them."

  2. 2
    Initialism of newly initiated brother. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism, slang
  3. 3
    horny projecting mouth of a bird wordnet
  4. 4
    A bird's beak. dialectal
  5. 5
    sodium-ion battery; Abbreviation of Na-ion battery (Na is the chemical symbol for sodium.) abbreviation, alt-of
Show 6 more definitions
  1. 6
    the writing point of a pen wordnet
  2. 7
    Bits of trapped dust or other foreign material that form imperfections in painted or varnished surfaces.
  3. 8
    A piece of a roasted, hulled cocoa bean.
  4. 9
    A small and pointed thing or part; a point; a prong.

    "the little nib or fructifying principle"

  5. 10
    One of the handles projecting from a scythe snath.
  6. 11
    The shaft of a wagon.
Verb
  1. 1
    To fit (a pen) with a nib. transitive

    "In nibbing the pen, place the inside of the point flat upon the nail of your left-hand thumb (holding the quill between the first and second finger of that hand), and let the whole length of the split be extended thereon, to steady the pen as much as possible […]"

Adjective
  1. 1
    Abbreviation of new in box: Of a product that is the subject of a consumer sale: new and still in its original packaging; not used. abbreviation, alt-of, not-comparable

Example

More examples

"Once the sketch is completed, ink it with a nib pen."

Etymology

From a variant of neb, perhaps due to association with nibble.

Related phrases

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.