dibble

noun

1. A pointed implement used to make holes in the ground in which to set out plants or to plant seeds.

   “Pol[ixenes] Then make you[r] Garden rich in Gilly'vors, / And do not call them baſtards. / Per[dita] Ile not put / The Dible in earth, to ſet one ſlip of them: […]”

   “Earth'd up, here lies an imp o' hell, / Planted by Satan's dibble— / Poor silly wretch, he's damned himsel', / To save the Lord the trouble.”

   “In sowing time ne'er would I dibble take, / Or drop a seed, till thou wast wide awake; […]”

2. (British, countable, slang)A police officer, especially one serving with Greater Manchester Police.
3. (British, slang, uncountable)Preceded by the: the police.

   “Watch out, lads! Here comes the dibble!”

   “In Moss Side they called the police Dibble, after Officer Dibble in the cartoon Top Cat, so the name had sprung from that.”

   “Bein' in the dibble [police] is no cakewalk when you're black. / If you don't get fitted, then you'll prob'ly get the sack.”

   “They shoved me in the back of a police van and started driving to the cop shop. I was sitting in the sweatbox, wondering how the Dibble had got onto me so quickly, when I heard a voice from another section of the van say, 'Are you P from Macclesfield?'”

verb

1. (transitive)To make holes or plant seeds using, or as if using, a dibble.

   “And as in winter, when the frost breaks up, / At winter's end, before the spring begins, / And a warm west wind blows, and thaw sets in— / After an hour a dripping sound is heard / In all the forests, and the soft-strewn snow / Under the trees is dibbled thick with holes, / And from the boughs the snowloads shuffle down; […]”

   “It was Digory who had the bright idea of eating four each and planting the ninth; for, as he said, "if the bar off the lamp-post turned into a little light-tree, why shouldn’t this turn into a toffee-tree?" So they dibbled a small hole in the turf and buried the piece of toffee.”

2. (intransitive)To use a dibble; to make holes in the soil.

   “I would as soon be gored by my ain bull that gangs on Dalmakittenleys, as have ill luck, and sorrow, and mischance, drilled and dibbled into my frail body by the spiteful een of an auld hag.”

3. (intransitive)To dib or dip frequently, as in angling.

   “And neere to them ye see the lesser dibling Teale”

name

1. A surname originating as a patronymic.