cob

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)A corncob.

   “The grains, each of which is about the bulk of the largest marrowfat pea, are placed all round a stalk, which goes up the middle, and this little stalk, to which the seeds adhere, is called the Corn Cob.”

   “I passed some mills in which the grain, cob, and husk were all ground up together for the cattle and hogs….”

   “Dad had placed a cob of corn on a stump for the jays, who bickered over it non-stop.”

2. (countable, uncountable)The seed-bearing head of a plant.

   “Examining the cob of the plants now in seed, I found them very full of fine seed.”

   “The following analyses exhibit the composition of the ash of the grain and cob of three specimens, grown on different soils, in Lewis county, in 1847”

   “About the end of October last, as an experiment, I selected seed from a Hickory King cob of above and planted twenty rows with from twenty to thirty seeds in each row, rows three feet apart.”

   “One of the branches developed into a fully-formed cob, though it was thinner than the normal cob of the variety.”

3. (abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, countable, uncountable)Clipping of cobnut.

   “Thy plumbs are fair indeed, but void of taste; And those large thick-shell cobs the teeth will guast.”

   “This kind of husk also protects the nut from birds, for titmice (Parus) have been observed to pass over filberts, and attack cobs and common nuts growing in the same orchard.”

   “Pickled walnuts are excellent if you can get hold of green walnuts, but other green nuts – hazel, cob, filbert – can be used instead.”

   “The nuts of the filbert are slightly longer and narrower than the cob.”

4. (countable, uncountable)A male swan.

   “In all common streams, and private waters, when cygnets are taken up, the owner of the cob must chuse the first cygnet, and the pen the next, and so in order….”

   “The cob waddled out onto the island and looked in the nest.”

   “The cob will defend the nest and the eggs.”

5. (East-Anglia, countable, uncountable)A gull, especially the black-backed gull (Larus marinus); also spelled cobb.

   “Here is also the pica marina or seapye many sorts of Lari, seamewes & cobs.”

   “On Saturday the 28th we saw a whale, two sea-wolves, and two penguins; in the afternoon there appeared great numbers of ospreys, and sea-cobs, and we met with some sea-grass, with long leaves.”

   “We found here a species of cob, with a grey head, red beak and feet, very much resembling our larus ribibundus….”

   “The Raven has a very ancient look about him, as if he could tell a lot if he thought proper, but the Cob looks weird and uncanny, as if he was continually thinking over the creatures that he had seen go down to Davy’s locker.”

6. (countable, uncountable)A lump or piece of anything, usually of a somewhat large size, as of coal, stone, or excrement.
7. (Midlands, countable, uncountable)A round, often crusty roll or loaf of bread.

   “The cob was a cracknel or simnel made of fine flour.”

   “…I sat there and broke the crust of my cob of bread.”

   “I want to do a manual job / Even bake a lovely bread cob”

8. (uncountable)A building material consisting of clay, sand, straw, water, and earth, similar to adobe; also called cobb, rammed earth or pisé.

   “The poore Cotager contenteth himſelfe with Cob for his wals, and Thatch for his couering….”

   “The walls are of cob, the external ones being about 2 feet 8 inches thick, and rest on a stone foundation.”

   “…cob falls outside the building code, so planners would want documentation of how the adobelike material performs.”

   “Some tests have been carried out to evaluate the stabilizing effect on cob of modern materials such as gypsum, lime and cement (McPadden & Pavia 2016).”

9. (countable, uncountable)A horse having a stout body and short legs.

   “If he comes to you riding a cob…”

   “He was well-mounted upon a sturdy chestnut cob, and had the graceful seat of an experienced horseman….”

   “I reined in my impatient cob, and turned round.”

   “Freize rode a strong cob and led a donkey laden with their belongings.”

10. (countable, uncountable)Any of the gold and silver coins that were minted in the Spanish Empire and valued in reales or escudos, such as the piece of eight—especially those which were crudely struck and irregularly shaped.

    “…he put his Hand in his Pocket and pull’d out ſome Gold, ſome Broadpieces and a Gold Cob….”

    “They fancied, that he who sold a Stone of Wool for Two Cobs, callid 9s. when Cobs were raised would sell his Stone for a Cob and a half when called 9s.”

    “As this sum was greater than ever Swift had been master of at any one time before, he pushed over, without reckoning them, a good number of the siver cobs (for it was all in that specie) to the honest sailor, and desired he would accept them for his trouble.”

    “He then drew out a large leathern bag, and poured out the contents, which were ſilver cobs, upon the table.”

    “Our fituation every day appears more alarming, there being a scarcity of almost every thing in the garrison — fire-wood a cob per hundred; flour five rials per pound; no fresh meat except an old cow, or worn-out ox, (only one perhaps killed in a month) which is sold at four and a half and five rials per pound; fowls twenty to twenty-four rials each; a goose ten dollars; a turkey twenty dollars; eggs a cob the dozen; and every other necessary in proporition.”

11. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)One who is eminent, great, large, or rich.

    “I ſaw fleſh bluddie toe ſlauer, / When the cob had maunged the gobets foule garbaged haulfe quick.”

    “But I would not haue a few rich cobs to get into their clowches almoſt whole countries, ſo as the poore can haue no releefe by them.”

    “There comes no good of greedie Cobs:”

    “For fishing and shuting, he was the cob of all this country!”

12. (countable, uncountable)A spider (cf. cobweb).
13. (countable, uncountable)A small fish, the miller's thumb.
14. (countable, uncountable)A large fish, especially the kabeljou (variant spelling of kob).
15. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)The head of a herring.

    “The first red herring that was broil’d in Adam and Eve’s kitchen, do I fetch my pedigree from, by the Harrot’s book. His Cob was my great-great-mighty-great grandfather.”

    “…not a Scrap of him, but the Cobs of the two Herrings, the Fiſhermen had eaten, remained of him….”

    “…he can come bragging hither with foure white Herrings (at’s taile) in blue Coates without roes in their bellies, but I may ſtarue ere he giue me ſo much as a cob.”

16. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)A tower or small castle on top of a hill.

    “Perhaps though in time one may make them to yield, But 'tis pretty'st Cob-Castle e'er I beheld.”

    “There is a small cob on this hill by some supposed to have been a fort: if it was, it must have been a very small one; tho' I rather take it for a tumulus than an exploratory tower.”

17. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)A thresher.

    “Who can make the worm a cob to thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and make the hills as chaff.”

18. (countable, historical, uncountable)A cylinder with pins in it, encoding music to be played back mechanically by a barrel organ.
19. (countable, dated, historical, uncountable)A person of mixed black and white ancestry, especially a griffe; a mulatto.

    “[…] but he does not say whether the nobleman is a mulatto or half-caste, or what advantage is to be derived from purchasing a cob belonging to "a dark-brown nobleman."”

    “The young mother was darker than either of her parents, and might be taken for a cob (the offspring of a mulatto and a negro), but the baby looked to be almost pure Indian.”

    “A cob is a reversion towards the negro, the child of one black parent with a mulatto, three-quarters black and hardly distinguishable. The mustee or quadroon, who is three-fourths white, and the costee or octoroon may be considered[…]”

20. A punishment consisting of blows inflicted on the buttocks with a strap or a flat piece of wood.

    “Such negro so offending shall receive fifteen cobbs or paddles for every such offence.”

21. (abbreviation, alt-of)Abbreviation of cobble.

    “Habitats were sand, cobble (cob), sand with macrophytes (s\m) and muck with macrophytes (m\m).”

    “List and short characteristics of sampling sites (br = bedrock, cob = cobble, gra = gravel, peb = pebble, sa = sand).”

    “Surface substrate is expressed as the dominant particles (cob cobble, peb pebble, boul boulder)….”

22. (alt-of, alternative)Alternative form of COB.
23. (US, abbreviation, alt-of, initialism)Initialism of contingency operating base.
24. (abbreviation, acronym, alt-of)Acronym of chief of boat.
25. (abbreviation, alt-of, initialism)Initialism of close of business; the end of day on a business day.

    “The NY office told the LA office to ensure the report was emailed by COB.”

    “February 25, 1998 Exhibitor Deadline COB - Ad Copy Deadline COB - FINAL PROGRAM COPY DUE TO PROGRAM CHAIR (COB)”

26. (abbreviation, alt-of, initialism)Initialism of centre of buoyancy
27. (abbreviation, alt-of, initialism)Initialism of coordination of benefits
28. (abbreviation, alt-of, initialism)Initialism of chairman of the board
29. (abbreviation, alt-of, initialism)Initialism of chip on board (an LED module or integrated circuit bonded to a circuit board)
30. (abbreviation, alt-of, initialism)Initialism of centre of buoyancy.

verb

1. To construct using mud blocks or to seal a wall using mud or an artificial equivalent.

   “Windows and other details can be cobbed into place, and niches and reliefs are easy to create.”

   “The technique appeals to alternative builders because of its ability to be sculpted, its use of waste materials, and its pest resistant properties. Each course is tamped down, or "cobbed," to impart strength and to aid in curing.”

   “And there is another alternative: both papercrete and fidobe can be cobbed.”

2. To have the heads mature into corncobs.

   “Ninety Day came to maturity very early and cobbed plentifully, but the grain proved shallow and lacking in meal.”

   “Corn was a bumper crop and cobbed much above average so that silage will be above average in feeding value.”

   “We were presently in the maize country. It looked beautiful. Miles of waving, dark green, tasselled corn just cobbing.”

3. To remove the kernels from a corncob.

   “Darning socks, knitting, fancy work, cooking, housework, cobbing corn.”

   “Here are some of the pople who made this yearbook easy to live with: […] David Littlejohn and Martin Munroe for their concessions, All the people who cobbed corn, Sara Perry for her steadfastness and warm smile in the coffee shop, […]”

   “Besides, the joy of shelling fresh peas or cobbing the corn in the right season is a great feeling!”

4. To thresh.

   “The price paid for cobbing (separating the seed from the straw) and drawing the seed of red and white clover is from 3s. 6d. to 4s. 6d. the bushel of 5 stone of seed.”

   “In the new machine under notice, clover can be "cobbed" and "hulled" or "drawn," and the seed delivered in one operation, the whole being done at the stack side in the open air and in one-thired of the time previously occupied.”

5. To break up ground with a hoe.

   “I have in this manner cobbed, with great success, lands that had formerly been in tillage, which would no longer bring corn because they were exhausted, either by consecutive crops or by the great quantity of weeks, which impoverished them: these became as good as my regularly cobbed lands.”

6. To beat with a flat instrument; to paddle.

   “[…] he pulled off his hat, and said he was going to cob him for breaking the rules and laws of the ship’s company.”

   “White prisoners, and sometimes black ones, are put into the dungeon, and ironed; and black prisoners have been “cobbed.””

   “[…] this jail keeper took a piece of board with holes bored through it (what you call a paddle) and cobbed him and cobbed him, and, then they took salt and washed him.”

   “British officers cobbed infantrymen for petty offenses, and Irish schoolchildren were paddled for failing to remove their hats, becoming the first of many schoolchildren to be cobbed.”

   “In the 1920s, French investigators cobbed every witness in piracy cases in Korea using instruments "rather like a canoe paddle or a thick cricket bat, on a part where he could not be ijured, but where the bruises would show up beautifully."”

7. (Northern-UK, colloquial)To throw, chuck, lob.

   “Well, sir, I’m sure I’d be rid of it fast enough if I could naut cob it away like a stoan.”

   “Each had a stone in his grasp in an instant, and simultaneously they cobbed at Master Bunnie.”

   “Iv not, aw’ll cob mi fleawers i’ th’ fire, brun mi love wi ’em, turn mi back on thee once an’ for ever, an’ lev thee to get a betther husbant wi two white e’en, iv tha con find one.”

   “Although, wait -- best avoid rocks. Terrorists are known to cob them at the democratic forces of law and order in the free world.”

8. To chip off unwanted pieces of stone, so as to form a desired shape or improve the quality of mineral ore.

   “A ſhade or ſhelter from the weather, under which the Cobbers cob the Ore.”

   “Pyrites with galena, gangue, and a little blende—separately cobbed, with other material of the same nature, by expert workers to minimize the quantity of dust, and then yielding: […]”

   “[…] it is not less ridiculous for instance to place a man, who may be perhaps an adept at spalling stones, in charge of a mill at the salary of a first-class foreman, than it would be to put the latter to cob ore at the wage of a labourer.”

   “These blocks are sledged by band, sorted and hand cobbed to remove impurities; but hand cobbing is slow and expensive.”

   “The bulk of adhering rock is cobbed, and the mica is shipped to grinding plants”

name

1. Clive's Original Band, band started by Clive Palmer after he left The Incredible String Band.
2. (abbreviation, alt-of)Abbreviation of Cobourg.