pebble
part of speech
noun (a pebble, pebbles)
meaning for a pupil
1) A pebble is a small, smooth, round stone, often found on beaches and in rivers. tree →
2) Pebbles are rounded because water rubbed them for a long time. tree →
sense in the lessons
In science pebbles show erosion: moving water and waves wear rough rocks into smooth stones. In everyday life children collect pebbles, skim them on water, and see pebble beaches. Phrases: «a pebble beach», «skim pebbles», «as smooth as a pebble».
examples
- She found a white pebble on the beach. tree →
- We skimmed pebbles across the lake. tree →
- The river had rolled the pebbles until they were smooth. tree →
- The path was covered with grey pebbles. tree →
- Never throw pebbles at people or cars. tree →
- Put some pebbles at the bottom of the fish tank. tree →
- In the story Hansel dropped white pebbles to find the way home. tree →
- The other denied in anger that he had thrown the pebble. tree →
note
Countable: one pebble, many pebbles. A pebble is bigger than a grain of sand or gravel but smaller than a rock or boulder. Do not put small pebbles in your mouth or nose; young children can choke on them.
In the corpora
- Ostriches swallow pebbles, which collect in the gizzard and grind tough food, because birds have no teeth.
- The Stranger-man is thumped, rolled on pebbles and called rude names, but he leads them all back to the river.
- Conglomerate is a rock made of rounded pebbles, rolled smooth by rivers or waves, cemented together.
- Curiosity found smooth, rounded pebbles like those in a stream, a sign that water once flowed there.
- Asteroids are rocky or metallic leftovers from the birth of the Solar System, ranging from pebbles to hundreds of kilometres across.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «pebble» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.