nimble
/ˈnɪmbəl/ adjective, verb
Forms nimbler nimblest nimbles nimbling nimbled
- adjective Adept at taking or grasping. “nimble fingers”
- adjective Quick and light in movement or action. “He was too nimble for the assailant and easily escaped his grasp.”
- adjective Quickwitted and alert. “He has a nimble mind and can improvise in any situation.”
- verb (intransitive) To move nimbly.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Etymology
With intrusive -b-, inherited from Middle English nymyl, nemel, nemyll, nymell (“agile, quick, ready, able, capable”), a merger of Old English nǣmel (“receptive, quick to grasp”) and Old English numol (“able to take, capable of holding”), both from niman (“to take”) + -el, -ol (associative suffix), corresponding to nim + -le. Compare German nehmen, Gothic 𐌽𐌹𐌼𐌰𐌽 (niman), Old Norse nema (“to take”). More at nim.
Webster’s 1913
Etymology [OE. nimel, prob. orig., quick at seizing, fr. nimen to take, AS. niman; akin to D. nemen, G. nehmen, OHG. neman, Icel. nema, Goth. nima, and prob. to Gr. Nomand, Numb.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “nimble”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details