gimble

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡɪmbəl/
• Rhymes: -ɪmbəl
• Homophone: gimbal

Etymology 1

Compared by the EDD to dialectal Swedish gimla (“to move the lips in an unseemly manner, to make a wry face, to move the lips awry”). Compare also North Frisian gēmeli (“to move the lips before laughing”). Nall compares Old English ginian; the hard g in this form needs explanation (its standard English descendant is yawn), though the EDD does record a variant form jimble (/ˈjɪmbəl/).

Verb

gimble (third-person singular simple present gimbles, present participle gimbling, simple past and past participle gimbled)

1. (East Anglia) To grin or smile.
   • [1830, Robert Forby, The Vocabulary of East Anglia[3], vol. II, p. 131:

     GIMBLE, v. to grin or smile. Though the g in this word is hard […] ]

   • 1842 May, John Mills, “The Stage Coach; or The Road of Life”, in The Sporting Magazine‎^[4], volume 15, number 145, page 241:

     […] I'd pull up at the garden-gate to take a bunch of flowers to stick in my buttonhole, and get a smile from ye that seemed to gimble itself through and through my buzzum !

   • 1861, Agnes Strickland, Old Friends and New Acquaintances, page 364:

     [T]wo fine powdered footmen, all yellow, and green, and gold lace, comed running to open the door [...] one of them, giving a knowing wink to the other, all the same as if they took me for a burglar comed under fictious pretences to make observations. [...] Well, they gimbled at that again. Howsomever, the sight of the money kinder brought one of them to reason, so he took me into Mr. Maplestone's room at last; […]

   • [1878, Samuel Henry Miller, Sydney Barber Josiah Skertchly, The Fenland, Past and Present, iv

     Gimble—to grin or smile, (N.)]

   • 1888, George Manville Fenn, Dick o' the Fens, page 52:

     "Now then, what are yow gimbling¹ at, young mester?" he said.

     ¹ Grinning.

   • [1897, “Norfolk”, in The Quarterly Review, volume 185, page 147:

     […] sometimes they ‘giffle’ (fidget) or ‘gimble’ (grin) […]]

Etymology 2

Variant of gimbal.

Noun

gimble (plural gimbles)

1. Alternative form of gimbal
   • 1878, J. Coleman, “Agricultural Mechanics”, in Robert Hunt, editor, Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures and Mines, page 29:

     The axle which revolves carries a small bevel wheel with 46 teeth, a similar wheel in all respects, only having 2 more teeth gears into this; but owing to its being hung on a gimble joint, like a ship's compass, it does not revolve, but makes a succession of rapid serpentine vibrations, around the face of the other wheel.

   • 1958, Charles Alfonso Zweng, Helicopter Rating, page 16:

     He thus introduced a laterally- mounted one-star plate which could be tilted on a gimble ring.

   • 1988, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Proceedings - Volume 22, page 27:

     The first aerospace mechanism to utilize HOP actuators will be a gimble caging device being designed by Aeroflex Labs for a satellite to be launched in the fall of 1988.

   • 2006, Ian David Aronson, DV Filmmaking: From Start to Finish, page 60:

     In both the handheld and body-mounted versions, the sled connects to the rest of the rig through a gimble, which provides a full, flexible range of movement.

Verb

gimble (third-person singular simple present gimbles, present participle gimbling, simple past and past participle gimbled)

1. Alternative form of gimbal
   • 1984, Defense Department Authorization and Oversight Hearings on H. R. 5167, US:

     It is gimbled such that if this is the aircraft , and this is the sensor, I can pull a maneuver, if my target is over here, and that sensor continues to stay locked on, and lases, even though I am pulling aways and leaving, it is a gimbled device .

   • 1984, IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Annual Conference, IEEE ... Frontiers of Engineering and Computing in Health Care:

     Also, since the pushers are gimbled, the limb is no longer constrained to be in a fixed position. Another advantage of the DSLS is since the force can now be computer-controlled to push or pull on the subject's limb, […]

   • 1992, International Society for Hybrid Microelectronics, Proceedings of the 1992 International Symposium on Microelectronics, October 19-21, 1992, Moscone Center, San Francisco, California: ISHM '92 Proceedings, International Society of Hybrid, page 408:

     The sphere that permits the gimbling of the head also allows a theta rotation. With this experience a new head is designed to address TAB assembly with die attach. The gimbling feature is still desired to accommodate the non-planarity bonding surface of the substrate. Theta rotation must be prevented. The solution is a head with individual gimbling hot bar blades attached to a fixed head.

Anagrams

• Gimbel