Wimble

//ˈwɪm.bəl// adj, name, noun, verb

adj, name, noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any of various hand tools for boring holes.
  2. 2
    hand tool for boring holes wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To truss (hay) with a wimble. transitive

    "“What have you been doing?” “Tending thrashing-machine and wimbling haybonds, and saying ‘Hoosh!’ to the cocks and hens when they go upon your seeds, and planting Early Flourballs and Thompson’s Wonderfuls with a dibble.”"

  2. 2
    To bore or pierce, as with a wimble. transitive

    "1692, Anthony Wood, Athenae Oxonienses, London: Lackington et al., 1820, Volume 4, p. 39, […] a foot soldier had hid himself […] and being greedy of prey, crept into the vault, and cut so much of the velvet pall that covered the great body, as he judged would hardly be missed, and wimbled also a hole thro’ the said coffin that was largest […]"

Adjective
  1. 1
    active; nimble obsolete

    "He was so wimble, and so wight, From bough to bough he lepped light,"

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname.

Example

More examples

"“What have you been doing?” “Tending thrashing-machine and wimbling haybonds, and saying ‘Hoosh!’ to the cocks and hens when they go upon your seeds, and planting Early Flourballs and Thompson’s Wonderfuls with a dibble.”"

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English wymble, wymbel. Compare Middle Dutch wimmel, Middle Low German wimel, wemel.

Etymology 2

From Middle English wimblen, from the noun (above). Compare Middle Low German wemelen.

Etymology 3

Related to whim.

Etymology 4

Perhaps a variant of Wimbley or Wimple.

Related phrases

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