Quranic root
عيب
ʿ · y · b
The root has two lexically distinct branches: عَيْبٌ, a fault or defect, and عَيْبَةٌ, a receptacle or repository.
The defect branch covers being defective, causing a defect, and attributing a fault to someone or something. The receptacle branch extends figuratively to a trusted repository of secrets and intimate confidence; the evidence treats these branches as separate.
- Maqāyīs · row 3352
- Lane · entry 5417
- Lane · entry 5422
- Lane · entry 5423
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 1
- 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.
عَابَ
ʿāba
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- 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.
To cause something to be faulty, unsound, defective, or blemished.
Transitive; the Quranic occurrence is a first-person imperfect form meaning “I cause it to be defective.”
- Lane · entry 5417
Selected Quran examples
Quran 18:79word 10
“I cause defect (in) it”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 18:79أَعِيبَهَاI cause defect (in) it
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 16 Classical meanings
عَابَ
Of a thing, to be or become faulty, unsound, defective, imperfect, blemished, or otherwise amiss.
Intransitive Form I usage.
- Lane · entry 5417
عَابَ، عَابَهُ
To mark a person or thing as faulty; hence, to find fault with, blame, reproach, or accuse it of a vice or defect.
A transitive use, including application to a human being as object; the fault may be attributed to the object or used as grounds for blame.
- Lane · entry 5417
عَابَ، عَائِبٌ
Of milk, to become thick; thick or becoming thick milk.
A specialized description of milk, including milk that has thickened in a skin or container.
- Lane · entry 5417
- Lane · entry 5428
تَعَيَّبَ
To be or become rendered faulty, unsound, defective, imperfect, or blemished.
Form V usage describing the assumption or occurrence of a defective condition.
- Lane · entry 5419
تَعَايَبُوا
To find fault with, blame, reproach, or accuse one another.
Reciprocal Form VI construction.
- Lane · entry 5420
عَيْبٌ
A vice, fault, unsoundness, defect, imperfection, blemish, or other thing amiss.
Of a person or animal, it may mean a vice; of a thing, a fault or defect. The plural forms include عُيُوبٌ and أَعْيَابٌ.
- Lane · entry 5422
مَعَابٌ، مَعَابَةٌ، مَعْيَبَةٌ
A place, ground, or cause of fault; something for which blame or reproach may be assigned.
Lexical derivatives associated with عَيْبٌ; the evidence also permits variant vowel patterns.
- Lane · entry 5422
عَيْبَةٌ
A receptacle, case, bag, or container for clothes, goods, utensils, or harvested grain.
A concrete container, commonly of skin or leather and closed with loops; its plurals include عِيَبٌ, عِيَابٌ, and عَيْبَاتٌ.
- Lane · entry 5423
عَيْبَةٌ، عِيَابٌ
Figuratively, a trusted repository of secrets, an intimate confidant, or the breast and heart as the place where secrets are kept.
A figurative extension from a container holding valued contents; it also occurs in expressions of intimate trust and confidential peace.
- Lane · entry 5423
عَلَيْكَ بِعَيْنَتِكَ
An idiom meaning “attend to your own family or wife and leave me alone.”
A specialized, figurative expression reported in the lexical discussion; the transmitted form is preserved as supplied.
- Lane · entry 5423
عَيَّبَ
To make, prepare, or take for oneself what is called an عَيْبَةٌ, a receptacle or case.
A specialized Form II usage referring to the making or acquisition of the container.
- Lane · entry 5418
عِيَابٌ
A wooden implement used to separate and loosen cotton.
A rare technical meaning, distinct from عِيَابٌ as the plural of عَيْبَةٌ.
- Lane · entry 5425
عَيَّابٌ، عَيَّابَةٌ
A person who finds fault with, attributes faults to, or accuses others much or often.
An intensive or habitual agent noun; the feminine form is عَيَّابَةٌ.
- Lane · entry 5426
عَائِبٌ
Faulty or becoming faulty; also, making something faulty.
Active participle of the intransitive and transitive uses of عَابَ.
- Lane · entry 5428
مَعِيبٌ
Made or caused to be faulty, unsound, defective, or blemished.
A resultative or passive description of something brought into a defective state.
- Lane · entry 5430
مَعِيبٌ
Found fault with, charged with, or accused of a vice or defect.
A resultative description of a person or thing to which a fault has been attributed.
- Lane · entry 5430
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The public headword is normalized to the Form I perfect عَابَ; the Quran occurrence itself is the imperfect أَعِيبَها.
The Lane passage uses a historical citation rendered as xviii. 78, whereas the secure QAC occurrence supplied here is 18:79:10; the example follows the QAC location and does not convert the Lane citation.