Definition from Oxford Languages ยท a noun - a form of sexual activity between women in which the genitals are stimulated by being rubbed against one another.
Tribbing" or "tribadism" comes from the Greek verb ฯฯฮฏฮฒฯ, which means "rub." Later, the words "tribas" (Latin) and "tribade" (French) were used to describe any woman who engages in penetrative or non-penetrative sexual activity with other women. to quote the 1843 text A Greek-English Lexicon, "a woman who practices an unnatural vice with herself or with other women." If you were accused of being a tribade, that would be bad news for your reputation. Scissoring is a colloquial umbrella term for all sorts of acts of tribadism.
A woman rubbing her clit pressing, grinding, humping against a lover's genitals, or any body part really a thigh, a foot, an ass, or any other body part, congratulations you've tribbed! Rubbing your wet cunt against another's hot body is both physically and visually pleasurable, whether you choose to call it "tribbing," "tribadism," "humping," "grinding," "scissoring," or something else naked or dressed.
Despite the word's sordid history, lesbians and bi-sexual women, have reclaimed "tribadism" and "tribbing" in recent decades to describe sex acts that involve genital rubbing, but definitions vary across sources. The Meriam-Webster dictionary defines tribadism as "a form of sexual activity between women in which the external genitalia are rubbed together," but in the 1988 book Sapphistry: The Book of Lesbian Sexuality, Patrick Califia includes a wider range of sex acts under the "tribadism" umbrella: "Tribadism is done by rubbing your vulva against your partner's mons veneris, hip, or thigh. Some lesbians also like to rub against their partners' buttocks or other parts of the body."
Ultimately, "tribbing" and "scissoring" as long as you like what you're doing, call it whatever you want, keep on humping, free to experiment, grind against a lovers's face, calf, boob, leather boot, cute foot and toes, tight ass whatever feels fun and pleasurable for everyone involved who cares what it is called. I hate that people think certain types of sex don't happen at all just because they don't do it. This is especially troubling when "so called celebrities" like Lea Delaria say that " scissoring isn't a thing" because she herself doesn't do it.
I use "scissoring" or "tribbing" to describe my favorite way to make love. I use the terms "scissoring" or "tribbing" to describe any sort of clitoral rubbing, humping that doesn't involve hands, e.g. her straddling me while grinding her clit against my pelvis, me grinding my clit against her ass from behind, face to face intertwined kissing, pressing hot bodies together humping frantically. I love to orgasm this way it is very sexual even primal to have my sweet lover grinding her body against me in any manner.