Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A protuberance or knob.
  • noun A small lump.
  • noun The essence; the core.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A knob; a protuberance.
  • noun In cotton- and wool-carding, a snarl; an entanglement; a knot; a knub.
  • noun Point; pith; gist.
  • To push.
  • To beckon.
  • To hang (Davies); nab.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun colloq. A jag, or snag; a knob; a protuberance; also, the point or gist, as of a story.
  • transitive verb Prov. Eng. To push; to nudge; also, to beckon.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Internet, slang A noob; a newcomer or incompetent.
  • noun obsolete The innermost section of a chrysalis in a silk cocoon.
  • noun A small lump or knob.
  • noun The essence or core of an issue, argument etc.
  • noun slang The clitoris.
  • verb baseball To hit the ball weakly.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the choicest or most essential or most vital part of some idea or experience
  • noun a small lump or protuberance
  • noun a small piece

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Variant of knub, probably from Low German knubbe, from Middle Low German, variant of knobbe.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Variant spelling of noob.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Either directly from Middle Low German, or from knub, from a Middle Low German word (compare Low German Knubbel, Knobbel ("knot; lump")). Compare knob.

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Examples

  • The nub is that whatever the presenter may think, people were offended - both in the talk and those who saw the slides later.

    Attracting Women to Rails Peggy 2009

  • The diagram also shows that a rod should be pushed ideally 1. 25W, although because each nub is of length W, the push amount could theoretically range from fractionally more than 0. 25W to fractionally less than 2. 25W.

    Metal computing, part 1 « The Half-Baked Maker 2010

  • In Palladium this is actually something called a "nub" -- in their marketing materials a "Trusted Operating Root" or "TOR" -- but we can pretend it's the OS kernel instead.

    Boing Boing: June 30, 2002 - July 6, 2002 Archives 2002

  • That 'nub' is so ingeniously, so casually, flung in, and immediately left there in the tail of the letter, undwelt upon, that an indifferent reader would never suspect that it was the heart and core of the epistle, if he even took note of it at all, This is the 'nub' --

    Life on the Mississippi Mark Twain 1872

  • That 'nub' is so ingeniously, so casually, flung in, and immediately left there in the tail of the letter, undwelt upon, that an indifferent reader would never suspect that it was the heart and core of the epistle, if he even took note of it at all, This is the 'nub' --

    Life on the Mississippi, Part 11. Mark Twain 1872

  • That 'nub' is so ingeniously, so casually, flung in, and immediately left there in the tail of the letter, undwelt upon, that an indifferent reader would never suspect that it was the heart and core of the epistle, if he even took note of it at all, This is the 'nub' --

    Life on the Mississippi, Part 9. Mark Twain 1872

  • That 'nub' is so ingeniously, so casually, flung in, and immediately left there in the tail of the letter, undwelt upon, that an indifferent reader would never suspect that it was the heart and core of the epistle, if he even took note of it at all, This is the 'nub' --

    Life on the Mississippi 1870

  • I hoard them, using them till the nub is so short I can’t grip it anymore.

    In Their Words: Patricia Klindienst (part 3) 2007

  • We have nepeta that self sows about the garden and it is usually chewed to the nub, which is fine by me.

    Cat Adaptation « Fairegarden 2009

  • Kitteh needz moer hairgell to beet Christian… And wif doz teefs I wouldna want to be himz stylist… draw bak a nub from da poyntee endz!

    Tunite - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger? 2008

Comments

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  • Bun in reverse.

    November 3, 2007