( BrE ) ( NAmE fiber ) / ˈfaɪbə(r); NAmE / noun
1.
[ U ] the part of food that helps to keep a person healthy by keeping the bowels working and moving other food quickly through the body
SYN roughage :
dietary fibre
Dried fruits are especially high in fibre .
a high- / low-fibre diet
2.
[ C , U ] a material such as cloth or rope that is made from a mass of natural or artificial threads :
nylon and other man-made fibres
3.
[ C ] one of the many thin threads that form body tissue , such as muscle, and natural materials, such as wood and cotton :
cotton / wood / nerve / muscle fibres
( literary )
She loved him with every fibre of her being.
—see also moral fibre , optical fibre
••
WORD ORIGIN
late Middle English (in the sense lobe of the liver , (plural) entrails ): via French from Latin fibra fibre, filament, entrails.