dribble

«dribble» in Mova's school dictionary: To let liquid, especially spit, run slowly out of your… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (dribble, dribbles, dribbled, dribbling); noun (a dribble, dribbles)

meaning for a pupil

1) To let liquid, especially spit, run slowly out of your mouth: babies dribble. tree →

2) (of liquid) To fall or flow slowly in drops or a thin stream. tree →

3) (sport) To move a ball along by giving it many small kicks (football) or bounces (basketball) while running. tree →

4) (noun) A small, thin stream of liquid, or spit coming from the mouth. tree →

sense in the lessons

In PE lessons, pupils practise dribbling a football through cones or a basketball down the court. In everyday life babies and dogs dribble. In science, a tap may dribble when the water pressure is low. Phrases: «dribble past», «dribble the ball», «a dribble of», «dribble down».

examples

• The baby dribbled all over his bib. tree →
• She dribbled the ball past three defenders. tree →
• Water dribbled from the leaky tap. tree →
• The basketball player dribbled to the hoop. tree →
• A dribble of honey ran down the jar. tree →
• The dog dribbled when it smelled the sausages. tree →
• We practised dribbling round the cones in PE. tree →

note

Past «dribbled», -ing «dribbling». UK also uses «drool» or «slobber» for spit; US «drool» is more common. In basketball, «double dribble» (bouncing with two hands or stopping and starting again) breaks the rules.

In the corpora

• Everyone picks their nose or dribbles in their sleep sometimes; these are normal body things, not proof that someone is gross.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «dribble» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.