dibble

A pointed implement used to make holes in the ground in which to set out plants or to plant seeds.

Pol[ixenes] Then make you[r] Garden rich in Gilly'vors, / And do not call them baſtards. / Per[dita] Ile not put / The Dible in earth, to ſet one ſlip of them: […]

Earth'd up, here lies an imp o' hell, / Planted by Satan's dibble— / Poor silly wretch, he's damned himsel', / To save the Lord the trouble.

To make holes or plant seeds using, or as if using, a dibble.

And as in winter, when the frost breaks up, / At winter's end, before the spring begins, / And a warm west wind blows, and thaw sets in— / After an hour a dripping sound is heard / In all the forests, and the soft-strewn snow / Under the trees is dibbled thick with holes, / And from the boughs the snowloads shuffle down; […]

It was Digory who had the bright idea of eating four each and planting the ninth; for, as he said, "if the bar off the lamp-post turned into a little light-tree, why shouldn’t this turn into a toffee-tree?" So they dibbled a small hole in the turf and buried the piece of toffee.

To use a dibble; to make holes in the soil.

There is another method of ſowing wheat in rows uſed in ſome counties, which is termed dibbling in the language of agricultors, and consiſts in making perpendicular holes one inch and half or two inches deep, as is commonly done in planting potato-roots; theſe holes are made by a man, who has a proper ſtaff ſhod with iron in each hand, and as he walks backwards is able by looking at the part of the row already made to keep nearly in a ſtraight line, and to make two holes at once at about nine inches diſtant from each other every way.

I would as soon be gored by my ain bull that gangs on Dalmakittenleys, as have ill luck, and sorrow, and mischance, drilled and dibbled into my frail body by the spiteful een of an auld hag.

To dib or dip frequently, as in angling.

And neere to them ye see the lesser dibling Teale

Natural fly-fishing, which comes under the heads of dibbling, daping and dabbing, is a method with which the largest fish are taken, and requires a deal of nicety and circumspection. The general rule in this way of angling is to fish with a line about half the length of your rod; but if there is wind stirring, with as much as it will carry out; but you need hardly ever fish with more than the first length, as dibbling must be performed as near as possible to the bank that you stand on; therefore a long rod and a short line is the best, which you will command with ease, and be able to shelter yourself from the sight of the fishes, behind bushes, stumps of trees, &c. The line you dib with should be very strong; for when you have struck a good fish, you will have a hard bout with him before you kill him, for want of a greater length of line: […]

A police officer, especially one serving with Greater Manchester Police.

Remember this story about police hunting a metal detector enthusiast suspected of digging 20 holes in a school playing field in Cornwall? It’s taken a rather unusual twist. Pop superstar Robbie Williams appears to have ’fessed up to the crime. The former Take That star, who is a keen metal detecting enthusiast, retweeted the West Briton newspaper’s version of the story, telling ‘Dibble’ – a Mancunian slang term for the police which comes from the character Officer Dibble in the cartoon Top Cat – to ‘do one’, vowing the police will never catch him alive.

Preceded by the: the police.

Watch out, lads! Here comes the dibble!

In Moss Side they called the police Dibble, after Officer Dibble in the cartoon Top Cat, so the name had sprung from that.