Quranic root
دبب
d · b · b
The root denotes movement upon the ground lighter or slower than ordinary walking, especially creeping or moving gently.
From slow movement on the earth, the lexical family extends to anything that moves or creeps on it, to imperceptible spreading, and to several figurative and specialized usages associated with creeping movement.
- Maqāyīs · row 1693
- Mufradāt · row 454
- Lane · entry 33
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 2
- Quran senses
- 18
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
دَابَّةٌ
dābbahun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 18 occurrences
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
Any living creature that moves, creeps, crawls, or walks upon the earth; a creature or animal in the broad sense.
The Qur’anic term can encompass rational and irrational creatures and is not restricted to quadrupeds or beasts. It is used both distributively and collectively.
- Lane · entry 59
- Mufradāt · row 454
Selected Quran examples
Quran 6:38word 3
“any animal”
Quran 8:22word 3
“(of) the living creatures”
In the expression دَابَّةٌ مِنَ الْأَرْضِ, the Beast of the Earth, understood as an extraordinary eschatological sign or creature; alternatively, on a figurative interpretation, a collective designation for wicked people likened to creatures.
This specialized interpretation concerns the construction in Qur’an 27:82 and preserves the reported distinction between its literal eschatological reading and its figurative or collective reading.
- Lane · entry 59
- Mufradāt · row 454
Selected Quran examples
Quran 27:82word 7
“a creature”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:164دَآبَّةٍۢmoving creature
- 6:38دَآبَّةٍۢany animal
- 8:22ٱلدَّوَآبِّ(of) the living creatures
- 8:55ٱلدَّوَآبِّ(of) the living creatures
- 11:6دَآبَّةٍۢmoving creature
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 34 Classical meanings
دَبَّ، دَبِيبٌ، دَبَبٌ
To creep, crawl, or move or walk slowly, gently, and without haste; also the act, pace, or manner of such movement.
This includes gentle movement by a person or animal and specialized expressions for a slow pace or a stealthy manner of creeping.
- Lane · entry 33
- Lane · entry 39
- Lane · entry 41
- Lane · entry 42
- Lane · entry 45
- Lane · entry 46
- Lane · entry 48
دَبَّ
To permeate, enter, or spread gradually and imperceptibly.
Used of drink entering the body or a vessel, disease entering the body or veins, wear spreading through cloth, and dawn advancing through the darkness.
- Lane · entry 33
دَبَّ
To creep about covertly, as in stealing cattle, or to insinuate slander and mischief among people.
This is a figurative extension of creeping movement and includes the idiomatic movement of calumny or mischief from person to person.
- Lane · entry 33
دَبَّ
To become fat, in the idiom literally describing a person’s lice as creeping.
A conventional idiomatic usage rather than the ordinary physical meaning of movement.
- Lane · entry 33
دَبَّ، أَدَبٌّ
To become hairy or furry; having down or abundant hair or fur, especially on the face or forehead.
The adjective is applied to people and to camels, with the cited descriptions including facial hair, down, or abundant fur.
- Lane · entry 33
- Lane · entry 63
دِبِّي حَجَلْ
The name of a certain traditional Arab game.
A fixed lexical name, unrelated to the ordinary verbal sense except by form.
- Lane · entry 33
أَدَبَّ
To make someone, especially a child, creep, crawl, or walk slowly or gently.
A Form IV causative construction based on the movement sense.
- Lane · entry 35
أَدَبَّ الْبِلَادَ
To fill a country or province with justice and security so that its inhabitants can live and move at ease.
A figurative or assumed-tropical Form IV expression describing the effects of prosperity and security.
- Lane · entry 35
دَبْدَبَ، دُبَادِبٌ
To raise or produce cries, shouts, noises, or a clamour; to be very clamorous or, in one usage, mischievous and clamorous.
The derived and adjectival usages concern loud or disruptive sound, including clamorous behavior.
- Lane · entry 36
- Lane · entry 55
- Lane · entry 58
دَبْدَبَ، دَبْدَابٌ
To beat a drum; a drum or drum-like instrument.
The noun denotes the instrument, while the verb denotes producing sound with it.
- Lane · entry 36
- Lane · entry 55
- Lane · entry 57
دُبٌّ
The bear, a known beast of prey.
This is a separate nominal usage of دُبٌّ, with feminine and plural forms reported in the lexical entry.
- Lane · entry 38
الدُّبُّ
The constellation of the Greater Bear, and according to some, the Lesser Bear.
The Greater Bear may be specified as الدُّبُّ الأَكْبَرُ and the Lesser Bear as الدُّبُّ الأَصْغَرُ.
- Lane · entry 38
دَبَّةٌ
A hill, heap, mound, or tract of sand, including an even sandy tract or a place abounding in sand.
The associated proverb uses falling into a sandy place figuratively for falling into difficulty or misfortune.
- Lane · entry 39
دَبَّةٌ
A container for oil, ointment, seeds, or olive oil; a kind of glass bottle or pot.
A specialized nominal usage for a vessel or receptacle.
- Lane · entry 39
دُبَّةٌ
A way or road.
The same nominal form is also extended to a person’s state, manner, or disposition in a separate usage.
- Lane · entry 40
دُبَّةٌ
A state, condition, way, mode, or manner of acting; a natural disposition, temper, quality, or property.
The expression رَكِبَ دُبَّتَهُ means to follow another’s condition or manner and act as he does.
- Lane · entry 40
دِبَّةٌ
Anything that creeps or crawls upon the earth, used as a collective generic noun.
This is a nominal collective usage for the creeping things of a place.
- Lane · entry 41
دَبَبٌ
Down or fine hair, especially facial hair; also abundant hair or camel fur.
The cited applications include hair on a woman’s face or forehead and abundant hair or fur more generally.
- Lane · entry 42
- Lane · entry 63
دَبَبٌ
A newly born wild cow, or a young wild bull after it is a year old and weaned; the corresponding female is also named.
A specialized zoological designation for the young of the wild cow.
- Lane · entry 42
دَبُوبٌ
Fat or corpulent, especially an animal or she-camel so fleshy that it can scarcely walk.
The adjective may be applied to a she-camel or, more broadly, to a thing or animal described as fat.
- Lane · entry 47
دَبُوبٌ
A person who goes about carrying slander or calumny, especially one who does so habitually.
A figurative characterization based on creeping among people with malicious speech.
- Lane · entry 47
دَبُوبٌ
A man who brings men and women together, understood in the cited usage as a cuckold or دَيُّوثٌ.
A figurative and socially marked application of the derived adjective.
- Lane · entry 47
دَبُوبٌ
A wound or thrust that makes blood flow.
Used adjectivally with جِرَاحَةٌ or طَعْنَةٌ for an injury from which blood runs.
- Lane · entry 47
دَبُوبٌ
A deep cave or cavern.
A rare specialized nominal or adjectival usage.
- Lane · entry 47
دَبْدَبَةٌ، مُدَبَّبٌ
Quick movement or a pace performed with short steps; also a sound like solid hooves striking hard ground.
The application to a camel in مُدَبَّبٌ is textually uncertain but is reported in connection with quick short-stepped movement or repeated creeping.
- Lane · entry 55
- Lane · entry 66
دُبَّاءٌ
A gourd, especially a round or dried gourd; also identified with يَقْطِينٌ in some accounts.
The lexical entry records disagreement about the word’s derivation and spelling.
- Lane · entry 49
دُبِّيٌّ
Anyone present or any person in the house, used only in the negative phrase meaning “there is no one in the house.”
The form is restricted to a negative expression and is explained as “one who creeps or moves.”
- Lane · entry 50
دُبَّاءَةٌ
A locust while smooth and bare, before its wings have grown.
A specialized zoological term for an immature locust.
- Lane · entry 51
دَبَّابَةٌ
A covered war machine or testudo used to approach a fortress and make a breach while protecting the men within.
The historical machine was made of skins and wood and was also called ضَبْرٌ.
- Lane · entry 53
دَبْدَبٌ
The walk or gait of a long-legged ant; in one possibly corrupt report, the long-legged ant itself.
The identification of the ant itself is expressly reported as possibly resulting from a transcription error.
- Lane · entry 54
دَبْدَبَةٌ
Milk that has become thick or curd-like, including milk upon which fresh milk is poured.
A specialized dairy term distinct from the sound and movement senses of the same form.
- Lane · entry 55
دُبَادِبٌ
A bulky or corpulent man.
A specialized nominal application of the adjective.
- Lane · entry 58
مَدِبٌّ، مَدَبٌّ
The track or course of a torrent or of ants; a winding track or mark resembling the tracks of ants.
The noun can describe a route, course, or visible trail, including diversified marks on a sword.
- Lane · entry 64
مَدَبَّةٌ
Land abounding in bears.
A descriptive adjective applied to land or terrain.
- Lane · entry 65
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The term دَابَّةٌ is broad in Qur’anic usage and should not be reduced to “animal” in contexts where rational creatures are included.
The interpretation of دَابَّةٌ مِنَ الْأَرْضِ in 27:82 is disputed between an extraordinary eschatological creature and a figurative or collective reference to wicked people.
A human-specific interpretation has been reported for 35:45, but the supplied Quran-focused evidence prefers the general creature reading.
Several Classical entries preserve rare, figurative, or textually uncertain usages; these are kept separate from the Qur’anic senses rather than treated as ordinary meanings.