▪ I. hob, n.2
[Origin obscure: perhaps more words than one. Cf. hub.]
1. a. (Formerly also hub.) In a fire-place, the part of the casing having a surface level with the top of the grate.
In its simplest form it appears to have been a boss or mass of clay behind the fire, the ‘back of the chimney’ or ‘grate’; afterwards, the brick or stone back and sides of a grate; now, usually, the iron-plated sides of a small grate, on which things may be set to warm.
| 1511 Nottingham Rec. III. 332 Makyng of an hubbe in the ketchyn. 1600 Surflet Countrie Farme i. xii. 54 Soot taken off from the hub of the chimney. 1674 Ray N.C. Words 26 Hob, the back of the Chimney. 1772 in Brand Pop. Antiq. (1813) II. 243 note, Ordering their cupfuls to be placed on the Hob of the Grate. 1801 Trans. Soc. Arts XIX. 325 The hobbs..project two inches and a half before the fire-grate. a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Hob, Hub..2. The flat ends of a kitchen range, or of a Bath-stove; not the back..Saucepans, tea-kettles, etc. are set upon the hub. a 1839 Praed Poems (1864) II. 201 If he puts up his feet on the hob. 1866 Rogers Agric. & Prices I. xviii. 421 In the manor-houses..and still more in the cottages of the poor, the fire was made against a hob of clay. |
b. One of the level supports on the top of a stove over which pots and pans, etc., are placed to be heated, etc.
| 1962 Listener 13 Sept. 411/2 The gas-cooker hobs have four self-lighting burners. Ibid. 411/3 Centre hob-grill. 1969–70 Catal. Belling Electric Heating & Cooking 59 No need to worry if anything boils over... No need to..take the pans off to lift the hob to get at the mess. Simply slide out the spillage tray from under the hob and clean it at the sink. |
2. A (rounded) peg or pin used as a mark or target in games; esp. one of the iron pins used in quoits. Also, A game in which these are used.
| 1589 Nashe Martins Months Minde 20 Leauing the obscurer hobbs that first they began with, to shoote a maine for the vpshot, at the fairest markes of all. 1676 Wycherley Pl. Dealer i. Wks. (Rtldg.) 105/2 To tell your honour the truth, we were at hob in the hall, and whilst my brother and I were quarrelling about a cast, he slunk by us. 1801 Strutt Sports & Past. ii. ii. 69 Stand at one of the iron marks and throw an equal number of quoits to the other, and the nearest of them to the hob are reckoned towards the game. 1847–78 Halliwell, Hob, a small piece of wood of a cylindrical form, used by boys to set up on end, to put half-pence on to chuck or pitch at with another half⁓penny. 1855 ‘Stonehenge’ Brit. Rur. Sports (1859) 510 The Game [Quoits] is played by driving two hobs into the ground at the distance agreed upon [etc.]. 1883 Almondbury Gloss., Hob, the name of a stone used in various games, such as ‘cots and twys’, for placing the stakes upon, or in ‘duckstone’. |
3. (Also hub.) ‘A hardened, threaded spindle, by which a comb or chasing-tool may be cut’ (Knight Dict. Mech.). Also, a master tap.
| 1873 C. P. B. Shelley Workshop Appliances iii. (1883) 100 Instruments, known as hobs, are also employed in forming the cutting ends of screw-chasing tools for use in the lathe. 1881 F. Campin Mech. Engin. 49 The taps used for making screw tools and worm wheels are called hobs. a 1884 Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl. 458/2 Hob, a hardened steel mandrel with a threaded portion which is fluted. 1888 Lockwood's Dict. Mech. Engin. 178 Hob, or Hub, a master tap. |
4. The shoe of a sledge.
| 1788 W. Marshall Yorksh. Gloss. (E.D.S.), Hob, the shoe or soal [sole] of a sledge. 1852 G. H. Andrews Agric. Engin. III. 41 A long thick log of wood, which slides upon the ground as the hob or shoe of a sledge. |
5. Short for hobnail. Also dial. hob-prick.
| 1828 Craven Dial., Hob-prick, a wooden peg driven into the heels of shoes. 1874 T. Hardy Madding Crowd II. xix. 222 He now wears shining boots with hardly a hob in 'em. |
6. Comb. hob-grate, a grate fitted with a hob or hobs.
| 1915 C. Mackenzie Guy & Pauline i. 53 Guy sat by the small hob-grate. 1959 Times 27 Jan. 10/6 He sat erect in a tall wooden chair beside a hobgrate. |
▪ II. hob, v.1 local.
[Cf. hub, sod, uneven spot of ground.]
trans. To cut the high tufts of grass in a pasture, or those left or missed in ordinary mowing. See quots.
| 1799 A. Young Agric. Linc. 196 Beasts are changed while hobbing is done; and the sooner it is hobbed the better. 1863 Morton Cycl. Agric. II. Gloss. (E.D.S.), Hobbing (Linc.), mowing the high tufts of grass in a pasture. 1888 Sheffield Gloss., Hob, to cut pieces of grass left untouched in hedge bottoms, etc., by a mowing machine, or by the ordinary scythe. A farmer will say..‘Hob the hedge bottoms’. |
▪ III. hob, v.2 dial.
[Origin unknown.]
trans. To bring up (a young animal) by hand.
| 1793 A. Young Agric. Sussex 75 When they are a fortnight old, the calf is hobbed upon skim milk. 1875 Parish Sussex Gloss. s.v., Two little pigs which she was hobbing-up. |
b. Comb. hob-lamb, a lamb reared by hand.
| 1847 in Halliwell. 1875 Parish Sussex Gloss., Hob-lamb, a pet lamb, brought up by hand. 1893 in Surrey Gloss. |
▪ IV. hob, v.3 dial.
[f. hob n.2 5.]
trans. To furnish with hobnails. Hence ˈhobber, one employed in driving hobnails into boots; ˈhobbing vbl. n., the action of hobnailing boots and shoes; hobbing boot = hobbing foot; hobbing foot local, a shoemaker's last.
| 1866 R. Hallam Wadsley Jack vii. 36 Thie fooit..weean't skar me—noa, not if it wor a hobbin fooit. 1874 T. Hardy Madding Crowd ii. iv. 38, I went into Griffin's to have my boots hobbed. 1907 Daily Chron. 8 Jan. 6/2 The woman was struck on the head by a shoemaker's ‘hobbing foot’. 1907 Daily Chron. 31 Jan. 6/7 He struck his wife on the head with an iron foot—a shoemaker's hobbing boot. 1921 Dict. Occup. Terms (1927) §429 Hobber..drives in hobnails round rims of soles of heavy boots, by hand with a hammer. 1922 G. Blair Haunted Dominie 43 There's some that skimp the hammerin' upon the hobbin'-feet. 1936 T. E. Lawrence Mint (1955) iii. i. 166 Marching boots so hobbed that every pavement became a skating rink. |
▪ V. hob, v.4
(hɒb)
[f. hob n.2 3.]
trans. To cut or form by means of a hob or master tap. Hence ˈhobbing vbl. n. Also hobbing machine, a machine in which worm-wheels, spur and spiral gears are cut by means of a hob or master tap; hobbing cutter (see quot. 1940).
| 1892 Lockwood's Dict. Mech. Engin. App. 428. 1913 Ibid., App. 439 Hobbing Machines. In these, spur and spiral gears as well as worm wheels are cut by a hob, the same hob serving for each type of gear by altering the angle of inclination of the thread. 1930 Engineering 17 Oct. 479/1 The defects of the present hobbing process of producing gear wheels. 1940 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 418/1 Hobbing cutter, a gear-cutting tool resembling a milling cutter or a worm gear, whose thread is interrupted by grooves so as to form cutting faces. 1943 Jrnl. R. Aeronaut. Soc. XLVII. 83 A hobbing machine with a properly designed solid master worm wheel will cut accurate and quiet-running gears. 1950 Engineering 18 Aug. 145/3 The majority of spur and helical gears are produced by hobbing. |
▪ VI. hob
in the phrases hob-a-nob, hob and nob, hob or nob: see hob-nob; in Hob Monday, Tuesday, -tide, corrupt or erron. forms (perh. only scribal) of hok- or Hock Monday, etc., cf. Hop-.