nimble

adjective

nim·​ble ˈnim-bəl 

nimbler ˈnim-b(ə-)lər  ; nimblest ˈnim-b(ə-)ləst 

1

: quick and light in motion : agile

nimble fingers

a nimble climber

2

a

: marked by quick, alert, clever conception (see conception sense 3), comprehension (see comprehension sense 1a), or resourcefulness

a nimble mind

nimble investors

b

: responsive, sensitive

a nimble listener

nothing like playacting to make you nimble in your feelings

—Mary Austin

nimbleness

ˈnim-bəl-nəs 

noun

nimbly

ˈnim-blē 

adverb

Synonyms

• alert
• brainy
• bright
• brilliant
• clever
• exceptional
• fast
• hyperintelligent
• intelligent
• keen
• quick
• quick-witted
• sharp
• sharp-witted
• smart
• supersmart
• ultrasmart

Examples of nimble in a Sentence

possessing a nimble wit, he always has a cutting comeback for any intended insult thrown his way

her nimble fingers make knitting look so easy

Recent Examples on the Web

Private credit borrowers benefit from a direct relationship with their lender as the lenders are smaller, more nimble organizations that are better set up to have a direct relationship with their borrowers. —Christian Faes, Forbes, 5 Nov. 2024

The clearest sign of their impact came on Friday, when Mercedes reported its weakest profitability since the former cars-to-trucks conglomerate broke itself up in 2021 to become more nimble. —Sasha Rogelberg, Fortune Asia, 28 Oct. 2024

The skies 145 million years ago were a battleground between flying bugs and the earliest form of birds, and only the nimblest survived. —Byrodrigo Pérez Ortega, science.org, 25 Oct. 2024

How would one of America’s largest bureaucracies become nimble enough to do it? —Doug Smith, Los Angeles Times, 21 Oct. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Middle English nemel, nymyl, nemyll "agile, quick, capable, apt," probably going back to a by-form of later Old English numul, numol, næmel (once) "quick to grasp," from num-, *nǣm-, ablaut forms of niman (class IV strong verb) "to take, get hold of" + -ol, deverbal adjective suffix; niman going back to Germanic *neman- "to take" (whence also Old Frisian nima, nema "to take, appropriate, seize," Old Saxon niman "to take [off], get, accept," Middle Dutch nemen "to take, keep," Old High German neman "to take, seize," Old Icelandic nema "to take, get," Gothic niman "to take away, receive, accept"), perhaps going back to an Indo-European verbal base *nem- "apportion, distribute," whence also Greek némō, némein "to graze, pasture (animals), have management or control of, rule, direct, distribute, apportion, assign, give," (middle voice) némomai, némesthai "to feed on, occupy, inhabit, enjoy" and perhaps as a nominal derivative Latin numerus "numerical sum or symbol, quantity, aggregate" (< *nomeso-)

Note: The suffix of Old English numul, etc., is presumably the same as in swicol "deceitful" (compare swician "to deceive, cheat") and forewitol "knowing in advance" (compare witan "to know"). — The Germanic verb *neman- "to take" appears to mean the opposite of Greek némein, one of whose many senses is "to give," though the meaning usually taken to be primary is "to distribute, apportion." However, as illustrated by the multiple senses of Gothic niman, taking can also imply receiving and accepting. Hypothetically, the middle voice forms of Greek némein might be expected to mean "receive (what has been assigned or distributed)," though the attested meaning is "feed on, inhabit, enjoy," as indicated in the etymology. E. Benveniste pointed to the use of Gothic arbinumja "heir" (literally, "one receiving the inheritance," with -numja a derivative of niman) as a translation of Greek klēronómos, with the agentive element -nomos being a derivative, with o-grade ablaut, of némein (see Le vocabulaire des institutions indo-européennes, tome 1 [Paris, 1969], pp. 81-86). A variety of other formations have been taken as derivatives of Indo-European *nem- in addition to Latin numerus: Sanskrit námaḥ "reverence, respect, respectful greeting," Avestan nəmah- "reverence, obeisance, loan" (though these are at least as likely from *nem- "bow," as in Sanskrit námati "[s/he] bends, bows"); Greek némos "grove, thicket, pasture," Latin nemus "wood, forest, sacred grove," Old Irish nemed "sacred place, sanctuary" (< "what has been apportioned, sacrifice"?); Lithuanian núoma "rent, lease," Latvian noma (nuõma). An older hypothesis, recently revived, connects Germanic *neman- with Indo-European *h₁em- "take" (see redeem). G. Kroonen hypothesizes that *neman- grew out of a prefixed verb *gam-eman (in Indo-European terms *kom-h₁em-e-), altered by dissimilation to *gan-eman- and then reanalyzed as *ga-neman-, with *ga- taken as the perfective prefix ga- (Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic [Brill, 2013], following a suggestion by F. Kortlandt in "The Germanic Fifth Class of Strong Verbs," NOWELE, vol. 19, no. 1 [1992], p. 104). See discussion in R. Lühr et al., Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Band 6, pp. 878-81; the editors reject the Kortlandt-Kroonen hypothesis. For further derivatives of Greek némein see nomad, nomogram, nomothetic, -nomy.

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

nimble

adjective

nim·​ble ˈnim-bəl 

nimbler -b(ə-)lər  ; nimblest -b(ə-)ləst 

1

: quick and light in motion : agile

a nimble dancer

2

: quick in understanding and learning : clever

a nimble mind

nimbleness

-bəl-nəs 

noun

nimbly

-blē 

adverb