Cob

[kob] /kɒb/

noun
1.
a corncob.
2.
a male swan.
3.
a short-legged, thick-set horse, often having a high gait and frequently used for driving.
4.
British. a mixture of clay and straw, used as a building material.
5.
British Dialect. a rounded mass or lump.
6.
a crude silver or gold Spanish-American coin of the 16th to 18th centuries, characteristically irregular in shape and bearing only a partial impression of the dies from which it was struck.
/kɒb/
noun
1.
a male swan
2.
a thickset short-legged type of riding and draught horse
3.
short for corncob, corncob pipe, cobnut
4.
(Brit) another name for hazel (sense 1)
5.
a small rounded lump or heap of coal, ore, etc
6.
(Brit & NZ) a building material consisting of a mixture of clay and chopped straw
7.
(Brit) Also called cob loaf. a round loaf of bread
verb cobs, cobbing, cobbed
8.
(transitive) (Brit, informal) to beat, esp on the buttocks
/kɒb/
noun
1.
an archaic or dialect name for the greater black-backed gull (Larus marinus) See also gull1
n.

a word or set of identical words with a wide range of meanings, many seeming to derive from notions of “heap, lump, rounded object,” also “head” and its metaphoric extensions. With cognates in other Germanic languages; of uncertain origin and development. “The N.E.D. recognizes eight nouns cob, with numerous sub-groups. Like other monosyllables common in the dial[ect] its hist[ory] is inextricable” [Weekley]. In the 2nd print edition, the number stands at 11. Some senses are probably from Old English copp “top, head,” others probably from Old Norse kubbi or Low German, all perhaps from a Proto-Germanic base *kubb- “something rounded.” Among the earliest attested English senses are “headman, chief,” and “male swan,” both early 15c., but the surname Cobb (1066) suggests Old English used a form of the word as a nickname for “big, leading man.” The “corn shoot” sense is attested by 1680s.

Related Terms

off the cob, rough as a cob
1.
chip on board
2.
close of business
3.
coordination of benefits