▪ I. † quab, n.1 Obs. rare.
Also 7 quabbe, 8 quobb(e.
[a. MDu. (and MLG.) quabbe (Du. kwab, kwabbe, (L)G. quabbe, Da. kvabbe, Sw. qvabba), burbot or eelpout, goby, tadpole; var. of quappe, OLG. quappa.]
1. a. A sea-slug (see holothurian n.). b. An eelpout or burbot. c. (See quabling.)
| 1617 Minsheu Ductor, A Quabbe, a kinde of fish..Holothuria. Ibid., A Quabbe, or Eele-powt..Mustela fluviatilis. 1748 Phil. Trans. XLV. 174 An extraordinary Fish in that Country [Russia], called the Quab, which is reported to be first a Tadpole, then a Frog, and at last a Fish. 1799 W. Tooke View Russian Emp. III. 113 Quobbs are likewise in the Irtysh in surprising numbers. |
2. fig. A crude or shapeless thing.
| 1628 Ford Lover's Mel. iii. iii, I will show your highness A trifle of mine own brain..a scholar's fancy, A quab; 'tis nothing else, a very quab. |
▪ II. quab, n.2 Obs. exc. dial.
Also 7 quabbe; dial. quob.
[= Du. kwabbe a boggy place; cf. MLG. quabbel slime, and see quag.]
A marshy spot, a bog. Cf. quabmire.
| 1617 Minsheu Ductor, A Quabbe, or quagmire. a 1656 Ussher Ann. vi. (1658) 596 Defended by the Mæotis and those quabs. 1847 Halliwell, Quob, a quicksand or bog. West. 1879 G. F. Jackson Shropsh. Word-bk., Quob, a marshy spot in a field; a quagmire. |
▪ III. quab, v. Obs. exc. dial.
Also dial. quob.
[var. of quap v.; cf. G. quabbeln in same sense.]
intr. To beat, throb, quiver. Hence quabbing ppl. a.
| 1663 Flagellum, or O. Cromwell (1672) 123 A dangerous impostume [printed -ure] of ambition, whose quabbing, beating pains gaue them no rest. 1863 Barnes Dorset Gloss., Quob, to quiver, like jelly. 1881 Leicester Gloss., Quob, to throb. |