Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Quick, light, or agile in movement or action; deft: nimble fingers. See Synonyms at dexterous.
- adj. Quick, clever, and acute in devising or understanding: nimble wits.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Light and quick in motion; active; moving with ease and celerity; marked by ease and rapidity of motion; lively; swift.
- Keen; sharp.
- Quick to apprehend; apprehensive; acute; penetrating.
- Synonyms Light, brisk, expeditious, speedy, spry; Nimble, Agile. The last two words express lightness and quickness in motion, the former being more suggestive of the use of the feet, the latter of that of the whole lower limbs.
- Fresh or strong: applied to tanliquor.
Wiktionary
- adj. Quick and light in movement or action.
- adj. Quick-witted and alert.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Light and quick in motion; moving with ease and celerity; lively; swift.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. moving quickly and lightly
- adj. mentally quick
Etymologies
- From Middle English nymel, nemel ("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). Compare German nehmen Gothic 𐌽𐌹𐌼𐌰𐌽 (niman), Old Norse nema ("to take"). More at nim. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English nemel, from Old English nǣmel, quick to seize and numol, quick at learning; see nem- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“We must remain nimble, flexible and prepared to compete as a region.”
“The suspension is pillow-soft, and a front-wheel-drive car approaching 2 tons can't be called nimble, but the chassis felt tight and Fusion was sure-footed.”
“Hermod, called the nimble, an older brother of Baldur, said he would go.”
“Why do we not always build our towns, when we can, on heights, in what Shakespeare calls nimble and sweet air?”
“It will be observed that the bear, after having pursued me for a few yards, turned and went on his way, but had I not been nimble -- in other words, had I been completely invested by the bear and thrown down -- he might, as the natives would phrase it, have made my wife a widow.”
“By my soul, I know not what Tom Price calls nimble men; but I could have walked as far on foot in the time.”
“Last week, Christine Lagarde said the UK needed to be "nimble" - an indication that while the IMF backs George Osborne's Plan A today, the fiscal consolidation may need tweeking if the global economic climate worsens.”
“Smaller companies are able to be more nimble, that is clearly the case.”
“Three weeks he lay upon that narrow white bed, and learned to face the battalion of eyes from the other narrow beds around him; learned to distinguish the quiet sounds of the marble lined room from the rumble of the unknown city without; and when the nimble was the loudest his heart ached with the thought of the alley and all the horrible sights and sounds that seemed written in letters of fire across his spirit.”
“The BOE would have to be "nimble" in responding to changes in the economic outlook, it added.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘nimble’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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10
aquatic, assert, avert, bleak, blithe, docile, dwindle, lethal, monitor, mutilate, nimble, plight and 3 more...
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Lesson 10
aquatic, assert, avert, bleak, blithe, docile, dwindle, lethal, monitor, mutilate, nimble, plight and 3 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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VNCle
N stands for 'nasal', not 'n'
pimple, bungle, spindle, handle, amble, humble, simple, dimple, winkle, tinkle, single, dingle and 53 more...
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Buttery
Words that make me feel cozy
Noodle, Nugget, Butter, Soft, Snug, Feather, Socks, Knit, Mug, Curl, Billow, Lounge and 315 more...
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Flutter
tuberose, golden apple, apple cider, unicorn, extraordinary, Pleiades, Merope, speckle, glitter, rose, pitter-pat, whale and 314 more...
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Vocab ##5
appint, monarch, counterpart, muse, bestow, unwitting, aghast, admonish, wage, decree, cavalry, phalanx and 126 more...
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Descriptive
The present, the future. Goals, wishes, hopes.
capricious, sericeous, sleek, flawless, charming, skilled, long-haired, versatile, beautiful, witty, fair, thin and 145 more...
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Revised GRE Wordlist_2013
Vocabulary building for my quest of GRE 2013
ephemeral, esoteric, rhetoric, censure, egregious, pittance, dupe, mulct, paucity, alacrity, maintain, laconic and 997 more...
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Wordwild's Delights
Delightful words to read and use
plangent, ribald, titubant, sidereal, pelagic, improvident, dolorous, parlous, baleful, precatory, pied, mephitic and 247 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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GRE list 1
Bloviate, Bacchanalia, mirth, covet, inconsequential, prescient, heresy, revelry, modality, gentrify, vitiate, tantalize and 182 more...
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-bles
fine find endings
able, amble, bable, cable, cible, coble, dable, fable, gable, gible, tible, table and 241 more...
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Inner B
Words with the letter b within the word, not just as the initial or last letter.
remember, maybe, able, unable, nimble, cable, reusable, thimble, cymbal, capable, tremble, enable and 143 more...
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2011 July
New words
correspondent, promulgate, transgress, trite, ravine, corespondent, contrivance, contrive, expedient, conducive, clairvoyance, difform and 184 more...
Tweets
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