Quranic root
ترب
t · r · b
The root has two principal semantic axes: dust or earth, and equality or being of the same age.
The dust axis yields meanings involving becoming dusty, poverty through clinging to the earth, wealth likened to the quantity of dust, and dust-bearing conditions. The equality axis yields peers or coevals and anatomical terms associated with aligned chest bones.
- Maqāyīs · row 919
- Mufradāt · row 179
- 4
- Quran-attested forms
- 4
- Quran senses
- 22
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
تِرْب
tirb
- Part of speech
- Noun (Quranic plural: أَتْرَاب)
- Quran occurrences
- 3 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.
A peer, coeval, or equal in age and standing; a well-matched counterpart.
The Quranic form is plural أَتْرَاب. It describes persons matched in age or likeness, including the women described in the Quranic passages, while the lexical term itself can be applied more broadly to male or female peers.
- Lane · entry 16562
- Mufradāt · row 179
Selected Quran examples
مَتْرَبَة
matrabah
- Part of speech
- Noun
- 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.
Poverty or need that leaves a person clinging to the dust or earth.
A conventional abstract noun for severe poverty, especially in the Quranic expression ذَا مَتْرَبَةٍ, one reduced to contact with the earth through want.
- Lane · entry 16587
- Mufradāt · row 179
Selected Quran examples
Quran 90:16word 4
“misery”
تُرَاب
turāb
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 17 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.
Dust or earth, especially the fine particles or material of the ground.
The Quran uses the noun for earthly material in creation, human origin, resurrection imagery, and comparisons or parables. It can refer generally to earth as well as to dry dust.
- Lane · entry 16570
- Mufradāt · row 179
Selected Quran examples
تَرِيبَة
tarībah
- Part of speech
- Noun (Quranic plural: تَرَائِب)
- 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.
The upper chest or breast area, including its bones or ribs.
The Quranic form is the plural تَرَائِب in the expression between the ṣulb and the tarāʾib. Lexical descriptions variously delimit the term as the upper breast, the chest bones, the area near the collarbones, or ribs of the chest; these are related descriptions of the same anatomical region.
- Lane · entry 16577
- Mufradāt · row 179
Selected Quran examples
Quran 86:7word 5
“and the ribs”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
View all 22 occurrencesBroader Classical Arabic meanings
Recorded for this root in the Classical lexicons beyond its Quran usage. These are secondary to the Quran senses above.
Show 17 Classical meanings
تَرِبَ
To become dusted or dusty; of a place, to abound in dust or earth; to have dust on or in the hand.
A Form I verb describing contact with or an abundance of dust.
- Lane · entry 16555
تَرِبَ
To become poor, needy, or reduced to clinging to the dust.
The poverty sense is explained through the image of having nothing between oneself and the earth.
- Lane · entry 16555
تَرِبَ
To become wealthy, with abundant possessions likened to the quantity of dust.
This contrary wealth sense is attested alongside the poverty sense; the wealth interpretation is reported as the more familiar one in the lexical discussion.
- Lane · entry 16555
تَرِبَتْ يَدَاكَ
An imprecatory or exhortatory expression wishing failure, loss, or contact with the dust.
The expression may be used conventionally without an intended literal imprecation, including as an emphatic incitement or reproach.
- Lane · entry 16555
مُتَارَبَة
Association or consorting among peers or equals.
A verbal noun formed from the relation of people who are تِرْب, matched companions or coevals.
- Lane · entry 16557
أَتْرَبَ
To put or sprinkle dust or earth upon something; to dust, soil, or treat an object with dust.
The construction may concern an ordinary object, a writing sprinkled with dust to dry its ink, or a hide treated with dust in preparation for use; the intensive form can indicate applying much dust or damaging an object with it.
- Lane · entry 16558
أَتْرَبَ
To possess a slave who has previously been possessed three times.
A rare specialized lexical use distinct from the dust-related causative sense.
- Lane · entry 16558
تَتَرَّبَ
To become defiled or soiled in or with dust or earth; to have dust adhering to it.
An intransitive or reflexive Form V use describing an object's becoming dust-covered.
- Lane · entry 16559
تَرِب
Dusty, dust-covered, or carrying dust; of a wind, bringing or driving along dust.
Applied to places, soil, food, flesh, and dust-bearing winds.
- Lane · entry 16563
تَرِب
Poor, needy, or cleaving to the dust through want.
An adjective describing a person reduced to poverty or need.
- Lane · entry 16563
تُرْبَة
A grave, burial place, cemetery, or the earth associated with a grave.
A specialized nominal use distinct from the ordinary material sense of dust or earth.
- Lane · entry 16564
تَرِبَة
The end joint of a finger, the part in which the nail lies.
Plural تَرِبَات.
- Lane · entry 16566
تَرِبَة
A plant of the plains or soft ground, described as having serrated leaves and, in one account, a purgative effect on camels.
The botanical identification is described variously in the lexical evidence.
- Lane · entry 16566
تَرَبُوت
Submissive or tractable, especially of a camel; readily manageable or easy to lead.
Applied to male or female camels and, by extension in the lexical explanation, to land or other things that are easy to traverse or manage.
- Lane · entry 16569
تُرَاب
In idiomatic or imprecatory expressions, dust or earth can signify poverty, disappointment, nothingness, or the grave.
Expressions such as having dust as one's lot or dust in one's mouth carry figurative meanings beyond the material noun, including wishing loss or alluding to death and burial.
- Lane · entry 16570
مُتْرِب
Possessing much wealth; rich and without want.
The wealth sense is the more familiar of the two contrary senses reported for this adjective.
- Lane · entry 16586
مُتْرِب
Having little wealth or being poor.
A contrary, less familiar sense is also attested for the same adjective.
- Lane · entry 16586
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
أَتْرَاب and تَرَائِب are Quranic plural forms; the public headwords are normalized to their directly attested singular citation forms تِرْب and تَرِيبَة.
The anatomical scope of تَرَائِب varies in classical descriptions between the upper chest, breast or chest bones, the collarbone region, and ribs.
The derivatives تَرِبَ and مُتْرِب are reported with contrary poverty and wealth senses; the artifact preserves both rather than collapsing them.