gob

English

Etymology

From Middle English gobben, gabben (to drink greedily), of uncertain origin. Perhaps a variant of Middle English globben (to gulp down), related to Middle English gulpen (to gulp); or alternatively related to French gober (swallow, gulp), from Irish and/or Scottish Gaelic gob (beak, bill), from Proto-Celtic *gobbos. See also gobbet.

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) enPR: gŏb, IPA(key): /ɡɒb/
  • (General American) enPR: gŏb, IPA(key): /ɡɑb/
  • Rhymes: -ɒb
  • (file)
  • (file)

Noun

gob (countable and uncountable, plural gobs)

  1. (countable) A lump of soft or sticky material.
    • 1952, The Glass Industry, Volume 33, Ashlee Publishing Company, page 309,
      These inventors have discovered that gobs may be fed at widely spaced times without allowing the glass to flow during the interval but instead flushes[sic] out the chilled glass which accumulates during the dwell.
  2. (countable, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, slang) The mouth.
    He′s always stuffing his gob with fast food.
    Oi, you, shut your gob!
    She's got such a gob on her – she′s always gossiping about someone or other.
  3. (uncountable, slang) Saliva or phlegm.
    He spat a big ball of gob on to the pavement.
  4. (US, military, slang) A sailor.
    • 1944 November, Fitting the Gob to the Job, Popular Mechanics, page 18,
      For the first time in history, new warship crews are virtually “prefabricated” by modern methods of fitting the gob to the job.
    • 1948 June, Fred B. Barton, Mending Broken Gobs, The Rotarian, page 22,
      Taking a safe average of 2,000 rehabilitated young gobs a year, that′s a total of 100,000 years of salvaged manhood, a target worth shooting at.
  5. (uncountable, mining) Waste material in old mine workings, goaf.
    • 1930, Engineering and Mining Journal, Volume 130, page 330,
      This consisted in wheeling gob back to the most distant part of the stope and filling up the sets right up to the roof.
  6. (US, regional) A whoopee pie.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

gob (third-person singular simple present gobs, present participle gobbing, simple past and past participle gobbed)

  1. To gather into a lump.
    • 1997 March, William G. Tapply, How to Catch a Trout on a Sandwich, Field & Stream, page 60,
      I liked to gob up two or three worms on a snelled hook, pinch three or four split shot onto the leader, and plunk it into the dark water.
  2. To spit, especially to spit phlegm.
  3. (mining, intransitive) To pack away waste material in order to support the walls of the mine.

Translations

Anagrams


Irish

Etymology

From Old Irish gop, from Proto-Celtic *gobbos (mouth) (compare French gober (gulp down) and gobelet (goblet) from Gaulish) from Proto-Indo-European *ǵebʰ- (jaw, mouth); compare jowl from Old English ċēafl; German Kiefer (jaw).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɡɔbˠ/

Noun

gob m (genitive singular goib, nominative plural goba)

  1. beak, bill (of a bird etc.)
  2. tip, point, projection
  3. pointy nose
  4. nib
  5. (colloquial) mouth
    Dún do ghob!
    Shut your mouth!

Declension

Derived terms

Verb

gob (present analytic gobann, future analytic gobfaidh, verbal noun gobadh, past participle gobtha)

  1. peck (as a bird etc.)
  2. project, stick out, up

Conjugation

Mutation

Irish mutation
Radical Lenition Eclipsis
gob ghob ngob
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading

  • "gob" in Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla, An Gúm, 1977, by Niall Ó Dónaill.
  • gop” in Dictionary of the Irish Language, Royal Irish Academy, 1913–76.

Scottish Gaelic

Etymology

From Old Irish gop, from Proto-Celtic *gobbos (mouth), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵebʰ- (jaw, mouth).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /kop/

Noun

gob m (genitive singular guib, plural guib or goban)

  1. bill, beak, nib, tip
    duilleag na ghoba leaf in its bill
    gob circea hen's bill
    gob pinnnib of a pen
    gob na stocainna tip of the sock
  2. point
    gob an rubhathe point of the headland
    gob na snàthaidethe point of the needle
  3. mouth
    gob na cùiteigethe mouth of the whiting
  4. garrulity
  5. babble

Derived terms

References

  • Faclair Gàidhlig Dwelly Air Loidhne, Dwelly, Edward (1911), Faclair Gàidhlig gu Beurla le Dealbhan/The Illustrated [Scottish] Gaelic-English Dictionary (10th ed.), Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, →ISBN
  • gop” in Dictionary of the Irish Language, Royal Irish Academy, 1913–76.
  • A Pronouncing and Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language (John Grant, Edinburgh, 1925, Compiled by Malcolm MacLennan)
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.