gob

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

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

From Middle English gobbe (also Middle English gobet), from Old French gobet, gobe (“lump, mouthful”), from Transalpine Gaulish *gobbo- (“neb, muzzle”).

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. (uncountable, slang) Saliva or phlegm.

   Synonyms: saliva, spit, sputum

   He spat a big ball of gob on to the pavement.

3. (US, regional) A whoopee pie.

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. (slang, ambitransitive) To spit, especially to spit phlegm.

Probably from Irish gob, Scottish Gaelic gob (“beak, mouth”).

gob (plural gobs)

2. (countable, UK, Commonwealth, Ireland, slang) The mouth. [from 16th c.]

   Synonyms: cakehole, mush, trap; see also Thesaurus: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.

   • 2005, “Tango”, in Public Warning, performed by Lady Sovereign:

     Now washing you will be like washing a goth / All that black lipstick around their gobs

• gob job
• rent-a-gob

Back-formation from gobbing, or a specified use of Etymology 1, above.

gob (plural gobs)

1. (uncountable, mining) Waste material in old mine workings, goaf.

   Coordinate terms: gangue, mullock, tailings

   • 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.

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

1. (mining, intransitive) To pack away waste material in order to support the walls of the mine.

Shortened from gobby or gobshite.

gob (plural gobs)

1. (US, military, slang) A sailor. [from 20th c.]
   • 1918 October 22, Letter of Adlai Stevenson, quoted in John Bartlow Martin, Adlai Stevenson of Illinois: The Life of Adlai E. Stevenson (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1976), page 53:

     Well I have taken the oath of allegiance for 4 years service anywhere in the world and am now a real 'gob' in the U. S. Navy.

   • 1928, Hart Crane, letter, 27 April:

     If it weren't for the Fleet I should scarcely be able to endure it. Gobs are always amusing, as you know.

   • 1937, Stella Blum, Everyday Fashion of the Thirties as pictured in Sears Catalogs, published 1986, page 94:

     Full-cut, dashing "gob" slacks with back pocket.

   • 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.

• gog

gob (plural gobs)

1. (nautical) This term needs a definition. Please help out and add a definition, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.
   • 1996, John Mellor, Handling Troubles Afloat:

     To save having to enter the locks at a crawl — not seamanlike in the strong cross-winds we often experienced ― I rigged a quarter-rope as described for stopping her, in addition to a gob-rope that I could immediately haul on to convert the quarter rope into a conventional stern line to hold her alongside after we had stopped.

   • 2009, Jeffrey Sleisinger, Shiphandling With Tugs:

     The towing point can be a bullnose up forward, a tow bitt aft, a staple, a towing hook, or a gob line.

• BOG, bog

From Old Irish gop,^[1] from Proto-Celtic *gobbos (“mouth”) (compare French gober (“gulp down”) and gobelet (“goblet”) from Gaulish) from Proto-Indo-European *ǵebʰ- (“jaw, mouth”); compare Russian зоб (zob, “goitre”), jowl from Old English ċēafl; German Kiefer (“jaw”).

• (Munster) IPA^(key): /ɡɔbˠ/, /ɡɞbˠ/^[2]
• (Connacht) IPA^(key): /ɡɔbˠ/^[3]
• (Ulster) IPA^(key): /ɡʌbˠ/^[4]

gob m (genitive singular goib, nominative plural goba)

1. beak, bill (of a bird etc.)
   • 1899, Franz Nikolaus Finck, Die araner mundart [The Aran Dialect], volume II (overall work in German), Marburg: Elwert’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, page 127:

     tā gob fadə eŕ ə grøtəx.

     [Tá gob fada ar an gcrotach.]

     The curlew has a long beak.

   • 1899, Franz Nikolaus Finck, Die araner mundart [The Aran Dialect], volume II (overall work in German), Marburg: Elwert’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, page 127:

     tā gobī nə l̄axə bŭī.

     [Tá goba na lacha buí.]

     The ducks’ bills are yellow.

2. tip, point, projection
3. pointy nose
4. nib
5. (colloquial) mouth, gob
   • 1899, Franz Nikolaus Finck, Die araner mundart [The Aran Dialect], volume II (overall work in German), Marburg: Elwert’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, page 127:

     dūn də ʒob!

     [Dún do ghob!]

     Shut your gob!

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

1. (ambitransitive) peck (ar (“at”)) (as a bird etc.)
2. (intransitive) project, stick out, up

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “gob”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• de Bhaldraithe, Tomás (1959) “gob”, in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm
• “gob”, in New English-Irish Dictionary, Foras na Gaeilge, 2013–2025

From Old Irish gop,^[1] from Proto-Celtic *gobbos (“mouth”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵebʰ- (“jaw, mouth”).

• IPA^(key): /kop/

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

1. bill, beak, nib, tip

   duilleag na ghob ― a leaf in its bill

   gob circe ― a hen's bill

   gob pinn ― nib of a pen

   gob na stocainn ― a tip of the sock

2. point

   gob an rubha ― the point of the headland

   gob na snàthaide ― the point of the needle

3. mouth

   gob na cùiteige ― the mouth of the whiting

4. garrulity
5. babble

• Edward Dwelly (1911) “gob”, in Faclair Gàidhlig gu Beurla le Dealbhan [The Illustrated Gaelic–English Dictionary]‎^[1], 10th edition, Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, →ISBN
• MacLennan, Malcolm (1925) A Pronouncing and Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language, Edinburgh: J. Grant, →OCLC

gob

1. genitive dual/plural of goba