▪ I. cobbing, vbl. n.
(ˈkɒbɪŋ)
[f. cob v. or n.]
1. Naut. A way of punishing sailors: see quots.
| 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1789), Cobbing..is performed by striking the offender a certain number of times on the breech with a flat piece of wood called the cobbing⁓board. 1785 Grose Dict. Vulgar Tongue, Cobbing..consists in bastonadoing the offender on the posteriors with a cobbing stick, or pipe staff. 1844 P. Parley's Ann. V. 291 Jack was accordingly ordered to have a ‘cobbing’. |
2. Mining, etc. (See quots.)
| 1870 Eng. Mech. 11 Feb. 518/1 Crushing machinery.. to crush the old bricks as ‘cobbing’. 1877 Encycl. Brit. VI. 348/2 Cobbing..broken pieces of old bricks and bottoms of furnaces that have absorbed copper. 1880 W. Cornw. Gloss., Cobbing-hammer, a miner's tool. 1881 Raymond Mining Gloss., Cobbing (Cornw.), breaking ore to sort out its better portions. |
3. ? = Topping, polling: see quot. dial.
| 1863 Morton Cycl. Agric. (E.D.S.), Cobbing (Essex), cutting the tops of pollards. |
▪ II. † ˈcobbing, a. Obs.
[f. cob n.1 1.]
Playing the ‘cob’.
| 1599 Nashe Lenten Stuffe 59 Of them all cobbing countrey chuffes which make their bellies and their bagges theyr gods are called riche cobbes. 1608 Withals Dict. 391 Amongst those notable, famous, notorious, cobbing fooles. |