Gribble

2 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Gribble \Grib"ble\, n. [Cf. Prov. E. grib to bite.] (Zool.)
     A small marine isopod crustacean ({Limnoria lignorum} or
     {Limnoria terebrans}), which burrows into and rapidly
     destroys submerged timber, such as the piles of wharves, both
     in Europe and America.
     [1913 Webster]



From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) [jargon]:

  gribble n. Random binary data rendered as unreadable text. Noise
     characters in a data stream are displayed as gribble. Modems with
     mismatched bitrates usually generate gribble (more specifically, {baud
     barf}). Dumping a binary file to the screen is an excellent source of
     gribble, and (if the bell/speaker is active) headaches.