Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A corncob.
- noun A male swan.
- noun A thickset, stocky, short-legged horse.
- noun A small lump or mass, as of coal.
- noun A mixture of clay and straw used as a building material.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The top; the head; the poll.
- noun A head man; a prominent or chief person; a leader or chief.
- noun A wealthy man; especially, one who makes a vulgar use or display of his wealth; a rich and vulgar man; a chuff.
- noun A strong, thick-set, pony-built horse, capable of carrying a heavy weight at a good pace. Also
cob-horse . - noun A kind of wicker basket made to be carried on the arm; specifically, one used for carrying seed while sowing.
- noun A roundish lump.
- noun A small haystack; a haycock.
- noun An ear of wheat. See
cob-poke . - noun The cylindrical shoot or receptacle, in the form of a spike, on which the grains of maize or Indian corn grow in rows; a corn-cob (which see).
- noun A young herring.
- noun A fish, the bullhead or miller's-thumb.
- noun The common clam, Mya arenaria.
- noun A Spanish dollar: a name formerly in use in Ireland, and still at Gibraltar.
- noun A compost of puddled clay and straw, or of straw, lime, and earth.
- noun In coal-mining, a small solid pillar of coal left in a waste as a support for the roof.
- noun Clover-seed.
- noun The great black-backed gull, Larus marinus. Also spelled
cobb . - noun A sort of short breakwater.
- noun In the United States the standard for a cob is some what larger than in England, a typical cob standing about 15 hands high and weighing from 1,000 to 1,050 pounds. A cob is smoother and more compact than a coacher and has shorter legs.
- noun Same as
cobswan . - noun . In pharm., a cylindrical mass of crystals of lactose (sugar of milk) formed upon a stick or cord.
- noun Tn horticulture, a kind of filbert characterized by a short rounded nut borne in short open husks. The longer nuts, in long husks, are known as true filberts.
- noun Any of the larger gulls, but more particularly the black-backed gull, Larus marinus.
- noun A blow on the buttocks with the knee, or with a strap or board; a punishment consisting of such blows. Also spelled
cobb . - To strike; knock; beat on the buttocks with the knee, or with a board or strap.
- In mining, to break (ore) into small fragments with a hammer, in the process of dressing it for the smelter.
- To excel; outdo; beat.
- To throw.
- To fight.
- Also spelled
cobb .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb Prov. Eng. To strike.
- transitive verb (Mining) To break into small pieces, as ore, so as to sort out its better portions.
- transitive verb (Naut.) To punish by striking on the buttocks with a strap, a flat piece of wood, or the like.
- noun obsolete The top or head of anything.
- noun obsolete A leader or chief; a conspicuous person, esp. a rich covetous person.
- noun United States The axis on which the kernels of maize or indian corn grow.
- noun (Zoöl.) A spider; perhaps from its shape; it being round like a head.
- noun (Zoöl.) A young herring.
- noun (Zoöl.) A fish; -- also called
miller's thumb . - noun engraving A short-legged and stout horse, esp. one used for the saddle.
- noun (Zoöl.) A sea mew or gull; esp., the black-backed gull (
Larus marinus ). - noun A lump or piece of anything, usually of a somewhat large size, as of coal, or stone.
- noun engraving A cobnut. See
Cobnut . - noun Prov. Eng. Clay mixed with straw.
- noun A punishment consisting of blows inflictod on tho buttocas with a strap or a flat piece of wood.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The cottages are built neither of brick nor of wood, but of some form of plaster, which they call cob, which is strong and smooth so long as no water comes near it.
Micah Clarke His Statement as made to his three grandchildren Joseph, Gervas and Reuben During the Hard Winter of 1734 Arthur Conan Doyle 1894
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Grace said ... first of all, lime juice and corn on the cob is a happy match indeed. secondly, i don't like shrimp AT ALL, but that salsa is so appealing to me that i'm almost excited to try the whole dish!
Oh The Things We Do For Love: Shrimp & Scallops With Warm Tropical Fruit Salsa and Corn On The Cob Laura 2009
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This may be a really stupid question, but I have always wondered why corn on the cob is available from stands here throughout the year?
Elote 2005
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Mr. GILL: So the plant reduces in height, but at the same time the cob is bigger, the stem is thicker and stronger.
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Mr. GILL: So the plant reduces in height, but at the same time the cob is bigger, the stem is thicker and stronger.
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In the Querétaro town of Cadereyta de Montes, near Bernal, a men on horseback stop at a convenience store to stock up on bottles of water and then buy fresh corn on the cob from a street vendor.
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Mr. GILL: So the plant reduces in height, but at the same time the cob is bigger, the stem is thicker and stronger.
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Mr. GILL: So the plant reduces in height, but at the same time the cob is bigger, the stem is thicker and stronger.
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Mr. GILL: So the plant reduces in height, but at the same time the cob is bigger, the stem is thicker and stronger.
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Mr. GILL: So the plant reduces in height, but at the same time the cob is bigger, the stem is thicker and stronger.
brtom commented on the word cob
"My eyes, I know, shone divinely as I watched Captain Slogger Dennehy of the Inniskillings win the final chukkar on his darling cob Centaur."
Joyce, Ulysses, 15
February 8, 2007
knitandpurl commented on the word cob
From By Hook or By Crook by David Crystal: "Cob – or cobb, as it is sometimes spelled – is a curious word. It has a remarkable range of senses, some dating back to the fifteenth century. At one time or another it has referred to a well-built man, a type of gull, a herring, a male swan, a stout horse, and a spider (think of cobweb). Small haystacks, loaves of bread, certain types of nut, the tops of maize shoots, and even testicles have also been called cobs, as have Spanish dollars (the famous 'pieces of eight'), lumps of building material for walls, and small rounded stones for roadways, more commonly called cobble stones." (p 36)
And: "To give someone a cob can mean to hit them. To have a cob on is to be in a bad mood. To get a cob on is to become sulky." (p 37)
December 15, 2008
ecbrenner commented on the word cob
In business: close of business (day).
April 8, 2009
sarra commented on the word cob
cob as in round bread roll. A roll or barm etc elsewhere in the country.
February 26, 2010