tribble

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈtɹɪbl̩/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪbəl

Unknown. The Century Dictionary suggests possibly a corruption of cribble (“sieve”).

tribble (plural tribbles)

1. A horizontal frame with wires stretched across it for drying paper.

• treble

• “tribble”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “tribble”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Probably invented for alliteration with trouble; the creatures first appeared in an episode called "The Trouble with Tribbles".

tribble (plural tribbles)

1. A fictional alien creature in Star Trek, a fast-breeding, cooing ball of fur.
   • 1998, William A. Sethares, Tuning, Timbre, Spectrum, Scale‎, page 49:

     Scales have proliferated like tribbles in quadra-triticale: just intonations, equal temperaments, scales based on overtones, scales generated from a single interval or pair of intervals, scales without octaves, scales arising from arcane mathematical formulas, scales that reflect cosmological or religious structures, scales that "come from the heart."

   • 2008, Robin C. Whittaker, editor, Hot Thespian Action!‎, page 569:

     The Hyper-Producing Playwrights of Edmondton: Or Why Alberta’s Capital Breeds New Plays Like Tribbles.

   • 2010, Dakota Cassidy, chapter 19, in Accidentally Demonic‎:

     They were like tribbles, multiplying by the dozens, cackling, giggling their maniacal joy at the game.

   • 2015, Zanzibar 7. Schwarzenegger, Veneri Verbum‎, page 19:

     They breed like tribbles, but at least they’re not terrestrial.