Tribble
name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A horizontal frame with wires stretched across it for drying paper.
- 2 A fictional alien creature in Star Trek, a fast-breeding, cooing ball of fur.
"Scales have proliferated like tribbles in quadra-triticale: just intonations, equal temperaments, scales based on overtones, scales generated from a single interval or pair of intervals, scales without octaves, scales arising from arcane mathematical formulas, scales that reflect cosmological or religious structures, scales that "come from the heart.""
- 1 A surname.
"Career diplomat Conrad Tribble said on Twitter that multiculturalism “is one of our greatest strengths as a country, and I go to that well often as an American diplomat. It’s hard to overstate the global soft power impact of America’s cultural diversity.”"
Example
More examples"If a tribble and a Klingon fought to the death, who would win?"
Etymology
Unknown. The Century Dictionary suggests possibly a corruption of cribble (“sieve”).
Probably invented for alliteration with trouble; the creatures first appeared in an episode called "The Trouble with Tribbles".
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.