Quranic root
ذبذب
dh · b · dh · b
The root is organized around three related orientations: the fly and things likened to it, sharpness or a pointed extremity, and movement or disturbance.
From the image of driving away a fly come meanings of repelling and defending; from motion and agitation come oscillation, wavering, haste, and related bodily or figurative developments. The sharpness branch yields terms for edges and pointed parts.
- Maqāyīs · row 1881
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 2
- Quran senses
- 1
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
مُذَبْذَب
mudhabdhab
- Part of speech
- Passive participle
- Quran occurrences
- 1 occurrence
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
Repeatedly driven away or repelled, especially from both sides.
In the Quranic construction مُذَبْذَبِينَ بَيْنَ ذَٰلِكَ, this reading emphasizes exclusion or repulsion from each of two groups.
- Lane · entry 21322
Wavering or vacillating between two alternatives, without adhering steadily to either.
In 4:143, it describes people situated between two sides with no settled attachment.
- Lane · entry 21322
Selected Quran examples
Quran 4:143word 1
“Wavering”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 4:143مُّذَبْذَبِينَWavering
Broader Classical Arabic meanings
Recorded for this root in the Classical lexicons beyond its Quran usage. These are secondary to the Quran senses above.
Show 38 Classical meanings
ذَبَّ
To repel or drive away; to defend someone by warding others off; hence, to reject a suitor.
Used with عَنْ for defending or repelling from someone, and applied idiomatically to turning back a marriage proposer.
- Lane · entry 21299
ذَبَّ
To become possessed, mad, or insane.
A reported figurative use.
- Lane · entry 21299
ذَبَّ
To go to and fro without remaining in one place.
Describes restless movement or failure to stay settled.
- Lane · entry 21299
ذَبَّ
To dry out, wither, or lose moisture; of the body, to become lean or emaciated, and of the complexion, to become altered.
Applied to lips, the tongue, plants, water left by a torrent, the body, and complexion.
- Lane · entry 21299
ذَبَّبَ
To repel or defend much or repeatedly.
An intensive or frequent form of repelling and defending.
- Lane · entry 21300
ذَبَّبَ
To leave only a small remainder of something.
Used of a day that has nearly passed and, in a related expression, of action carried through so that little remains undone.
- Lane · entry 21300
ذَبَّبَ
To press on, exert oneself, or hasten in travel.
Used of strenuous or rapid journeying, including travel that leaves the travelers fatigued.
- Lane · entry 21300
ذَبْذَبٌ
To defend one's neighbors and family.
A reduplicated lexical form with the sense of active protection.
- Lane · entry 21301
ذَبْذَبٌ
To annoy, molest, harm, or hurt people.
A distinct reported use of the same reduplicated form.
- Lane · entry 21301
ذَبْذَبَ
To make something dangle, move to and fro, or become agitated; figuratively, to leave someone confused or wavering.
The object may be a suspended thing, or a person made perplexed and unsure of the right course.
- Lane · entry 21301
ذَبْذَبَةٌ
Dangling or moving to and fro; a state of motion, agitation, or wavering between alternatives.
Also describes an unsettled or fluctuating state of affairs.
- Lane · entry 21301
ذَبٌّ
The act of repelling or driving away.
A verbal noun and nominal expression for repulsion.
- Lane · entry 21303
ذَبٌّ
Much in motion and unwilling to remain still.
Applied, for example, to a camel that does not stay in one place.
- Lane · entry 21303
ذَبُّ الرِّيَادِ
A wild bull; also a person who goes and comes, or habitually visits women.
The name is associated with going to and fro without remaining fixed in one place.
- Lane · entry 21303
ذُبَابٌ
The common fly; also, by extension, the bee.
The word is treated as a singular lexical noun in the cited discussion, with ذُبَابَةٌ as its corresponding unit form.
- Lane · entry 21304
ذُبَابٌ
Evil, mischief, annoyance, or harm.
Used figuratively for harm that befalls someone, including continual harm.
- Lane · entry 21304
ذُبَابٌ
Ill luck or an unlucky condition.
A reported figurative use.
- Lane · entry 21304
ذُبَابٌ
Plague or pestilence.
A reported figurative use.
- Lane · entry 21304
ذُبَابٌ
Diabolical possession, madness, or insanity.
A reported figurative use.
- Lane · entry 21304
ذُبَابٌ
Ignorance.
Occurs in an idiomatic description of a person as filled with ignorance.
- Lane · entry 21304
ذُبَابُ العَيْنِ
The pupil or apple of the eye; also a black spot in the dark part of a horse's eye.
An anatomical extension of the fly term by resemblance.
- Lane · entry 21304
ذُبَابُ السَّيْفِ
The point or sharp extremity of a sword; by extension, the pointed or sharp part of other things.
Includes the point of an object, the sharp tip of an ear, the sharp edge of a camel's teeth, and the first part emerging from a henna flower.
- Lane · entry 21304
ذُبَابَةٌ
A remainder or remnant of something, especially a sound or substantial remainder.
Applied to what remains of water, thirst, hunger, a debt, a promise, or the day.
- Lane · entry 21305
ذُبَابَاتٌ
Small mountains.
A reported plural use distinct from the ordinary sense of remainder.
- Lane · entry 21305
ذَبَّابٌ
A person who vigorously repels or defends.
Applied especially to one who energetically defends his wife or wives.
- Lane · entry 21307
يَوْمٌ ذَبَّابٌ
A sultry day in which wild animals are infested by gnats and drive them away with their tails.
The defensive action of the animals is attributed figuratively to the day.
- Lane · entry 21307
شَفَةٌ ذَبَّانَةٌ
A lip that has become dry or lost its moisture.
A lexical adjective describing dryness of the lip.
- Lane · entry 21308
ذَبْذَبٌ
The penis or male genitalia; according to some accounts, the testicles.
An anatomical use associated with movement to and fro; the sources report variation in the precise referent.
- Lane · entry 21309
ذَبْذَبٌ
The tongue.
A separately reported anatomical meaning of the same form.
- Lane · entry 21309
ذَبَاذِبُ
Pendant ornaments, tassels, or fringes that hang from a camel vehicle, a camel's head, or a garment.
The items are named for their movement when suspended or when the wearer walks.
- Lane · entry 21313
أَذَبُّ
The tush or canine tooth of a camel.
An anatomical noun use.
- Lane · entry 21316
أَذَبُّ
Tall or long.
A reported adjectival use synonymous with طَوِيلٌ.
- Lane · entry 21316
أَرْضٌ مَذَبَّةٌ
Land containing or abounding in flies.
A noun used in a descriptive construction for fly-infested land.
- Lane · entry 21318
مِذَبَّةٌ
An implement for driving away flies, especially a fly-whisk made of horsehair.
Also used figuratively of tails serving animals as fly-whisks.
- Lane · entry 21319
مُذَبِّبٌ
Hastening, energetic, or non-flagging in movement or travel.
Applied to a rider, a rapid journey, a long and hurried interval between waterings, and also to a wild bull.
- Lane · entry 21320
مَذْبُوبٌ
A camel or horse fatally afflicted by flies entering its nostrils; also one who enters cultivated country and dies there.
The latter application is reported as an extension of the fly-afflicted condition.
- Lane · entry 21321
مَذْبُوبٌ
Possessed, mad, or insane.
A reported figurative use.
- Lane · entry 21321
مَذْبُوبٌ
Foolish, stupid, or deficient in intellect.
A reported use attributed to the Abridgment of the ʿAyn.
- Lane · entry 21321
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Lane Quran citation associated with ذُبَابٌ in entry 21304 is a citation about that separate lexical form and is not converted into a modern verse location for مُذَبْذَب.
The displayed Quran form has one occurrence, while the lexical evidence records two historically reported readings of its construction: repeated repulsion and wavering between sides.