Classical Arabic - English Dictionary

قَطْرَبَ, (Ḳ,) inf. n. قَطْرَبَةٌ, (O,) He hastened, sped, or went quickly. (O, Ḳ.)

And قَطْرَبَهُ He threw him down, or prostrated him, on the ground: (O, Ḳ:*) and so قَرْطَبَهُ. (O.)

تَقَطْرَبَ He (a man, TA) moved about his head: and made himself to resemble the قُطْرُب: (Ḳ:) or became like the قُطْرُب in some one of the senses assigned to it in what follows. (TA.)

قُطْرُبٌ A certain bird; (Ṣ, O, Ḳ;) [app. a species of owl; accord. to Dmr, as cited by Freytag, a bird that roves about by night and does not sleep; and hence rendered by him, and by Golius, strix. No other meaning of the word, as an appellative, is mentioned in the Ṣ.]

And A certain insect that rests not all the day, going about, or going about quickly, (O, Ḳ, TA,) or, as they used to assert in the Time of Ignorance, that never rests, (TA,) moving about on the surface of water. (KL.) Moḥammad Ibn-El-Mustaneer, (Ḳ, TA,) the grammarian, (TA,) was surnamed قُطْرُب because he used to go early in the morning to Seebaweyh; so that the latter, whenever he opened his door, found him there; wherefore he said to him, مَا أَنْتَ إِلَّا قُطْرُبُ لَيْلٍ [Thou art none other than a kutrub of night]. (Ḳ,* TA.) It is also expl. in the Ḳ as meaning Light, or active; and Th mentions that it signifies thus; and adds that one says, إِنَّهُ لَقُطْرُبُ لَيْلٍ [Verily he is a kutrub of night]; but this shows that it means an insect [described above], and is not [properly speaking] an epithet. (TA.) To this insect is likened a man who labours during the day in accomplishing worldly wants and in the evening is fatigued so that he sleeps during the night until he enters upon the time of morning to betake himself to the like thereof, هٰذَا جِيفَةُ لَيْلِ قُطْرُبُ نَهَارٍ [lit. This is a corpse of the night, a kutrub of the day]. (O, from an explanation of a trad.) [See also Freytag's Arab. Prov. i. 329 and 643.]

And [hence, app.,] † A thief who is skilful, or active, in thievishness: (O, M, TA:) for اللِّصُّ الفَارِهُ فِى اللُّصُوصِيَّةِ, an explanation of القُطْرُبُ given [in the O and] by IM and others, the copies of the Ḳ erroneously substitute اللِّصُ وَالفَأْرَةُ [as though قُطْرُبٌ had the significations of a thief and a rat or mouse]. (TA.)

And The male (Lth, O, Ḳ, TA) of the [kind of demon called] سِعْلَاة (Lth, TA) or of the غُول [which is said to signify the same as سعلاة]; as alsoقُطْرُوبٌ↓. (O, Ḳ, TA.)

And [app. A young, or little, jinnee: thus قُرْطُبٌ is expl. in the L: or] the young ones, or little ones, of the jinn. (Ḳ.)

And A young, or little, dog: (O:) or the young ones, or little ones, of dogs. (Ḳ.)

And A wolf such as is termed أَمْعَط [i. e. whose hair has fallen off, part after part, or has become scanty; or mischievous, or malignant]. (O, Ḳ.)

And An ignorant person, (O, Ḳ, TA,) who boasts by reason of his ignorance (يَظْهَرُ بِجَهْلِهِ). (O, TA.)

And Cowardly, or a coward, (O, Ḳ, TA,) even if intelligent. (O, TA.)

And Lightwitted; syn. سَفِيهٌ; (O, Ḳ, TA;) as alsoقُطْرُوبٌ↓: and IAạr has mentioned as a pl. in this sense, used by a poet, قَطَارِيبُ, which, ISd says, may be pl. of قُطْرُوبٌ or of a sing. of some other form requiring such a form of pl., or it may be used as a pl. of قُطْرُبٌ by poetic license. (TA.)

And Thrown down, or prostrated, on the ground, syn. مَصْرُوعٌ, (O, Ḳ, TA,) by reason of diabolical possession or wrestling. (O,* TA.)

Also A species of melancholia; (O, Ḳ, TA;) a well-known disease, arising from the black bile; (TA;) mostly originating in the month of شُبَاط [February, O. Ṣ.]; vitiating, or disordering, the intellect, contracting the face, occasioning continual unhappiness, causing to wander about in the night, and rendering the face أَخْضَر [here app. meaning of a dark, or an ashy, dust-colour], the eyes sunken, and the body emaciated. (O.) [A more ample discription is given by Avicenna (Ibn-Seenà). in book iii. pp. 315, et seq. SM states that he had not found this in any other lexicon than the Ḳ. Golius explains the word as signifying Lycanthropia, on the authority of Rhazes (Er-Rázee).]

قُطْرُوبٌ: see the next preceding paragraph, in two places.