[f. prec. sb.]
1. trans. To furnish with a knob or knobs; to form knobs upon.
1879. Spon’s Encycl. Indust. Arts, I. 701. A thin sheet of copper, whose surface has been ‘knobbed,’ or raised into rows of oval knobs, by the application of a blind punch.
2. intr. To form a knob or knobs, to bunch; to bulge out.
1566. [see KNOBBING below].
1631. Markham, Way to Wealth. To make Hasty Pudding … when it boils put in a spoonful of Flower, but not let it knob.
1876. Blackmore, Cripps, xxiv. 150–1. Tapering straight as a fishing-rod, and knobbing out on either side with scarcely controllable bulges.
3. trans. To free from knobs, to rough-dress (stone in the quarry).
1890. in Cent. Dict.
4. trans. To hit. slang.
1818. Sporting Mag., II. 211. He knobbed his adversary well.
Hence Knobbing ppl. a.
1566. Drant, Horace, I. ix. (1567), N ij b. Stitche, or coughe, or knobbing gowt.
