What does dribbled mean?
Dribbled is the past tense and past participle of the verb "dribble," a word with two everyday senses. The first describes liquid moving in small drops or a thin, uneven stream — a baby may have dribbled milk down her chin, or water may have dribbled from a rusty tap. The second, now dominant in sports, describes propelling a ball forward with small, repeated touches: players dribbled down the court in basketball, or dribbled past defenders on the soccer field. The word carries a casual, sometimes faintly comic tone when applied to saliva, but is entirely neutral in sporting contexts. It appears constantly in sports commentary, everyday description, and informal writing. Its flexibility across both physical imagery and athletic action makes it a vivid, economical verb, and its derivatives — dribble, dribbler, dribbling — are equally common in modern English.
verb (past tense and past participle of dribble)Past tense and past participle of "dribble": allowed saliva or another liquid to flow slowly in small drops, or moved a ball forward with small repeated touches, as in soccer or basketball.
- Allowed saliva to flow from the mouth; drooled
- Let liquid flow or fall in small drops or a thin trickle
- (Of a ball) was moved along the ground or floor with repeated small touches of the hand, foot, or stick, as in basketball, soccer, or hockey
- (Of liquid) trickled out slowly in a thin stream
"The baby dribbled milk down her chin while she giggled."
"He dribbled past two defenders before scoring."
"Soup dribbled down the toddler's bib as she ate."
Basketball borrowed its most basic skill from a word that originally meant drooling — the same verb once described saliva before it ever described a crossover.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of dribbled
"Dribble" likely originated as a frequentative form related to "drip," emerging in English in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century with the sense of falling or flowing in drops; the variant form "drib" also existed. The diminutive noun "driblet" developed from it shortly afterward. Its sporting sense arose in the nineteenth century — first in soccer, where players nudged the ball along with their feet, and later extended naturally to basketball after that game's invention in 1891. The word is native to English, with no classical cognates.
Related word forms
How dribbled is actually used
"Dribbled" is informal-to-neutral in register. In American English it is strongly associated with basketball, where dribbling with the hand is standard play; in British English the soccer sense dominates. When used of people losing saliva, the word can carry a mildly comic or unflattering connotation.
Easily confused with dribbled
"Drizzled" means rained lightly or poured a thin stream of liquid over food, whereas "dribbled" means flowed in small drops or was moved along with small touches of a ball.
"Dabbled" means engaged in an activity casually or superficially, while "dribbled" refers to liquid flowing in drops or ball-handling in sport.