✒️ A pen tip ✒️ To shape a tip 🐦 A beak tip

to nib

1 9.3

To make a pointed tip on something, for example a pen

verb
/nɪb/

: afilar

The artist decided to carefully nib the clay into a finer detail for her sculpture.

Examples

To improve the pen's performance, she learned how to nib it properly before writing.
She only nib nib stuff she really likes.
P80 lie scrubbed at his nose as if to nib away the memory of it.

Fiction book (1991)
She couldn't nib that moisture away; the Buruden had too strong a hold on her arms.

Fiction book (2002)
He used the tool to nib the edge of the paper, giving it a sharp point.

Synonyms

to acuminate

vsto nib

Specialized

9.9

To make something narrow and sharp at one end, like a pencil tip

is about shaping a small writing tip rather than any generic point

Compounds

pen nib

4.1

The small pointed metal tip of a pen that puts ink on paper

How Pointed

to sharpen

35 2.1

to hone

8 5.5

to nib

1 9.3

to file

7 5.1

shape

475 1.0

Surface Forms

nib infinitive

nibbed past

nibbed past participle

nibbing present participle

nibs third person singular

Etymology

Nib as a verb comes from the same old word neb and from the noun nib, meaning 'beak' or 'point', so to nib something is to give it a small pointed end, like shaping a pen tip.