nimble
adjective
- (of a person/animal) agile/active/quick in movement/action
- (of mind/intellect) clever/versatile/alert
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈnɪmbəl/ / [ˈnɪmbəl] ~ [ˈnɪmbl̩]
adj
Etymology: From Middle English nymyl, nemel, nemyll, nymell (“agile, quick, ready, able, capable”), 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.
- Adept at taking or grasping.
“nimble fingers”
- Quick and light in movement or action.
“He was too nimble for the assailant and easily escaped his grasp.”
“[…] if the men should not agree what to play, but one would have a grave Pavane, another a nimbler Galliard, a third some frisking toy or Iigg, and then all of them should be wilful, none yield to his fellow, but every one scrape on his own tune as loud as he could: what a hideous hateful noise may you imagine would such a mess of Musick be?”
- Quickwitted and alert.
“He has a nimble mind and can improvise in any situation.”
“"It requires you to be flexible and nimble in your thinking and Huw has already demonstrated that," said Greenwood, [...]”
verb
Etymology: From Middle English nymyl, nemel, nemyll, nymell (“agile, quick, ready, able, capable”), 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.
- To move nimbly.
“Their teeth are regularly and assiduously cleaned by shrimp that nimble in and out of the moray's mouth like ballet dancers in the jaws of a mechanical stage dragon.”