Also 4–7 kob, 9 cobb. [Etymology doubtful; perh. onomatopœic.]
† 1. intr. To fight, give blows. Obs.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 8285. Thre thousaund full þro þrang into batell … And cobbyt full kantly. Ibid., 11025. And ho keppit hym full kantly, kobbit with hym sore.
2. trans. To crush or bruise (ore).
1778. Pryce, Min. Cornubiensis, 318. Cob, to break or bruise…. Cobbed ore is the spalled which is broke out of the solid large stones with sledges.
1880. W. Cornwall Gloss., Cobbing in mining is breaking copper ore into small pieces.
3. To strike. a. esp. Naut. To strike on the buttocks with a flat instrument. See COBBING.
1769. [see COBBING].
1802. J. Anfrey, in Naval Chron., VII. 76. They were going to cobb a man.
1802. Ann. Reg., 556. With a pair of pea-squeezers in his hand to cob him with.
1829. Marryat, F. Mildmay, ii. I was sentenced to be cobbed with a worsted stocking filled with wet sand.
b. dial.
1825–79. Jamieson, Cob, to beat in a particular mode practised among shepherds. Roxb.
1877. Holderness Gloss., Cob, to strike posteriorly with the knee.
1881. Leicestersh. Word-bk., Cob, to strike: generally, to strike on the head.
4. To thresh or beat out (seed). Also intr. said of the seed. Cf. COB sb.1 10.
1796. Hull Advertiser, 13 Feb., 1/4. Clover-seed is likely to be scarce … it cobs ill, and rises to little more on the average than one bushel per acre.
1807. A. Young, Agric. Essex (1813), I. 155. He has applied it [threshing-machine] to cobbing white clover with great success.
5. To throw.
1867. Kentish Dialect, Cob, to throw gently.
1884. Cheshire Gloss., Cob, to throw: ‘cob it away, it’s good t’ nowt’; ‘The land has cobbed up a deal of grass.’
