Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb conversation To gently waffle or muse on a subject which one clearly knows little about.
  • noun cricket Such a shot
  • noun A cylindrical shaped pre-production plastic pellet used in manufacturing and packaging.

Etymologies

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Examples

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  • What is the meaning of nurdle?

    February 26, 2008

  • What is the name given to a person who enjoys staying in hotels?

    February 26, 2008

  • In cricket 'to nurdle' is used to describe a batsman's stroke when he nudges or manoeuvres the ball into a gap in the field. The term implies that the batsman is in control of the ball and that he successfully scores, probably a single run.

    February 26, 2008

  • Wikipedia offers this additional definition, which isn't nearly as fun as the word itself sounds:

    "A nurdle, also called a pre-production plastic pellet or plastic resin pellet, is a pellet typically under 5mm in diameter. Nurdles are a large contributor to marine debris and can cause starvation to marine wildlife, as well as other environmental hazards. A nurdle may be called a mermaid's tear, a term which may also refer to pollution in the form of degraded plastic.

    "Nurdles that escape from the plastic production process into waterways or oceans have become a significant source of ocean and beach pollution, frequently finding their way into the digestive tracts of various marine creatures."

    February 26, 2008

  • There is much to learn about nurdles and their increasing appearance and representation in beach sands around the world far from their source. Read the world without us" by Alan Weisman

    November 24, 2008

  • These definitions are very disappointing.

    November 30, 2008

  • n. A small manufactured pellet of raw plastic resin form which an immense variety of plastic items is produced. Also called a "mermaids tear".

    100 billion kilograms are shipped around the world each year. Go to any beach, look closely on your hands and knees among the wrack and tide marks, and you'll begin to find these ubiquitous pollutants among the hundreds of other pieces of plastic trash that have found their way into the worlds oceans.

    Nurdles attract poisonous chemicals already in the seas, such as DDT and PCB's; these poisons may enter our food supply via fish that mistake them for food.

    April 25, 2009

  • As Cordycerps mentioned, read The World Without Us and you'll never think of these doodads as harmless little bits again.

    May 2, 2009

  • "Driving on the M25, coming over the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, fumbling for your coin to pay the road toll, nurdling into the right lane, brings out the stories."

    London Orbital by Iain Sinclair, p 13 of the Penguin paperback edition

    January 22, 2012

  • The sound of the word's oddly fertile:
    A pellet of plastic to choke a turtle,
    A toothpaste squiggle
    Or cricketer's wriggle - 
    Both little and tricky hide in nurdle.

    March 16, 2015