Literary notes about Dribble (AI summary)
Writers deploy the term “dribble” to evoke a sense of meager or intermittent flow—whether describing physical substances or abstract quantities. It often refers literally to liquid seeping slowly from a source, as when a faucet yields but a parsimonious dribble [1] or when saliva forms long, trailing streams from the mouth [2]. In other contexts, it conveys the idea of something insufficiently abundant, like a trickle of ideas or emotion slowly leaking away [3, 4]. The word also finds a place in depictions of movement, capturing the controlled, repeated tapping of a ball in sports, where a neat dribble may prove most effective [5, 6]. In each instance, “dribble” enriches the text by imbuing both physical and metaphorical scenarios with nuanced understatement.
- Water came down the faucet but it was a parsimonious dribble.
— from Tokyo to Tijuana: Gabriele Departing America by Steven David Justin Sills - Long strings of saliva may dribble from the mouth and collect about the lips (Fig. 106).
— from Common Diseases of Farm Animals by Robert Alexander Craig - " He talked, without strict command of his tongue, just to gain time; spoke of expanding Britain, and so on, a dribble of commonplaces.
— from The Crown of Life by George Gissing - Persons in this state can neither feed nor endure to fast, and their bodies seem like leaky casks, from which all strength must soon dribble away.
— from The Letters of Cassiodorus Being a Condensed Translation of the Variae Epistolae of Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator by Senator Cassiodorus - If a center forward has a clear field it is all right for her to dribble, but, as a rule, she should play a passing game.
— from Girls and Athletics Giving a brief summary of the activity, rules and method of administration of the following games in girls' schools and colleges, women's clubs, etc.: archery, basket ball, cricket, fencing, field day, field hockey, gymnastics, golf, hand ball, ice hockey, indoor base ball, rowing, soccer, skating, swimming, tennis, track athletics, volley ball, walking, water polo, water basket ball. - A neat dribble with the feet is often most effective, and it is generally very difficult to stop.
— from Three Hundred Things a Bright Boy Can Do
