▪ I. stob, n.1 Now only Sc. and dial.
(stɒb)
Also 7–9 stobb.
[Partly a variant (sometimes merely graphic), partly a cognate, of stub n.1, q.v. for the etymology. (It seems impossible accurately to separate the two words, as they appear always to have been to a great extent synonymous; the examples written with o are therefore placed here, even when it is not unlikely that they properly belong to stub n.1) Cf. stab n.2]
† 1. A stump, portion remaining after mutilation.
| c 1420 Chron. Vilod. 4326 Bot þe flesshe from þe stobbus of his lymus was clene a-way. |
b. fig. (See quot.)
| 1825 Brockett N.C. Gloss., Stob,..metaphorically,..an ignorant, stupid fellow. |
2. A stick, a twig broken off.
| 1321 Charter in Verse (late copy) With grene ant wilde, stob ant stokke. 1513 Douglas æneis xi. ii. 18 Bund with the syonys or the twyistis sle Of small rammell or stobis of aikin tre [L. virgis et vimine querno]. 1827 Tennant Papistry Storm'd 170 Sae stanes, stobs, sticks, come peltin' aff Dean Annan. |
3. A stake; a post; also a gibbet. † rogue stob, a whipping-post.
| 1530 Lyndesay Test. Papyngo 169 Boreas blew one blast,..Quhilk..blew hir.. Doun to the ground,..Vpon ane stob scho lychtit, on hir breist; The blude ruschit out. 1552 ― Monarche i. 1538 Quhalis and Monstouris of the seis Stickit on stobbis, amang the treis. 1550 Abstr. Protocols Town Clerks Glasgow (1894) I. 18 The twa biggit howssis nixt adjacent thairto upone the sammyn syide gangand to the lyne stobbis. 1626 in R. Welford Hist. Newcastle (1887) III. 276 For making clasps to the rogue stob, 1s. 2d. a 1670 Spalding Troub. Chas. I (Bannatyne Club) I. 44 He was taken and headed, and his right hand sett upon ane stob. 1795 Statist. Acc. Scot. XV. 321 The different articles made from these woods are sold at the following prices on the spot: stobs at 4s. the hundred, four feet long; [etc.]. 1842 J. Aiton Dom. Econ. (1857) 268 Almost every boy knows how to knock up a rabbit hutch... A few stobs, boards, and nails, is all that is required. 1860–62 Trans. Tyneside Field Club V. 90 (E.D.D.) In former times, a pilgrimage was sometimes made..to Winter's Stob, or gibbet, for a piece of the wood to rub the tooth with in toothache. 1882 Trans. Glasgow Archaeol. Soc. II. ii. 129 Stobs had been inserted in the bank of the river. 1883 C. F. Smith Southernisms in Trans. Amer. Philol. Soc. 53 Stob, ‘a small post or stake or stump of a shrub,’ commonly so used in many, if not all, parts of the South. 1893 T. N. Page In ole Virginia 140 A few hens loitering about..and a runty pig tied to a stob. |
† b. (to have or hold) stob and stake: to hold property (in a place). Obs.
| 1489 Extracts Burgh Rec. Edin. (1869) I. 57 Hafand nother stob nor stake within this towne. 1529 Extracts Rec. Convent. Burghs Scot. (1870) I. 510 That tha cum and duell within the burgh and hald the stob and stack within the same. 1596 Extracts Aberd. Reg. (1848) II. 133 All burgessis of gild..sall dwell,..hauld stob and stack, fyre and flett, within the burghs quhair thay are frie. |
† c. every stob: the whole of a building. Obs.
| 1716 Wodrow's Corr. (1843) II. 137 His mother..has the mill in farming, where every stob was burnt. |
† 4. A short thick nail. Obs.
| 1496 Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. I. 295 Item, for iij⊇ stobbis to the vyralis of the cartis, vs. iiijd. 1532–3 Durham Househ. Bk. (Surtees) 160 Pro 100 stobbys, pro molendino de Hessylden, 4d. |
5. A thorn; a prickle; a splinter.
| 1637 Rutherford Let. to Meine (1664) 167 Lest a stob strike up in your foot, and cause you to halt all your dayes. 1851 W. Anderson Rhymes (1867) 26 (E.D.D.) Pickin stobs frae laddies' feet. |
6. A thatch-peg.
| 1837 Finchale Priory Charters etc. (Surtees) p. ccccl, The wooden pins or stobs used in fastening thatch to the roof of a building. 1844 H. Stephens Bk. Farm III. 1097 There are still other modes of thatching stacks, such as sticking in handfuls of straw..and keeping them down with stobs of willow. |
7. A saddlers' awl. Cf. stab-awl, stab n.1 5.
| 1872 N. & Q. Ser. iv. IX. 476 The ‘brog,’ a small boring instrument, is in Scotland sometimes called ‘a borin stob.’ 1881 Times 4 Jan. 11/4 The man..said Cruickshank, a saddler, had deliberately stabbed him with a ‘stob’ or awl. |
8. Coal-mining. (See quot.)
| 1883 Gresley Gloss. Coal-mining 241 Stobb, a long steel wedge used in bringing down coal after it has been holed. |
9. attrib. and Comb.: stob-feather (see quot.); stob-mill, a windmill pivoted upon a central post; stob-nail = sense 4; stob-net, a fishing net supported on stakes; stob-pin = sense 4; stob-thatch, roofing consisting of broom or brushwood laid across the rafters; also attrib.; hence stob-thatched adj.
| 1825 Brockett N.C. Gloss., *Stob-feathers, the short unfledged feathers that remain on a fowl after it has been plucked. |
| 1882 Archæol. æliana Ser. ii. IX. 20 *Stob-mill of the antique mould. 1884 Newcastle Daily Chron. 28 Aug. 4 An old stob-mill..looks over the mural defences of Newcastle. |
| 1728 Extracts Burgh Rec. Glasgow (1909) 308 A late method of fixing the iron bands to the trades of carts by square headed *stob naills. |
| 1806 Morison Decis. XXXIII. 14283 Salmon fishing in the river Leven, by means of *stob-nets. |
| 1571 Wills & Inv. N.C. (Surtees 1835) 362, iiij{supm} *stob pynnes iiijs. |
| c 1748 Ballad in D. Mitchell Hist. Montrose (1866) 76 The roofs were made o' auld *stob thack, The wa's o' plastered fir. 1888 D. Grant Scotch Stories 29 The dwellin' hoose..[was] a canty stob-thack but-an'-ben. |
| 1792 Statist. Acc. Scot. II. 534 A very few of them have been *stob-thatched, or covered with a deep coat of straw. 1871 W. Alexander Johnny Gibb (1873) 197 His cosy ‘stob⁓thacket’ house. |
▪ II. † stob, n.2 Obs.
[f. stob v.1]
= stab n.1
| 1653 W. Ramesey Astrol. Restored 258 Let the Roman emperor have a care of a stob. |
▪ III. † stob, a. Obs.
[f. stob n.1]
Stumpy.
| a 1500 Anc. Scott. Proph. i. 107 in Bernard. de cura rei fam. (E.E.T.S.), Þar sall A batell be, Be-syde a stob crose of stane þat standis on A mure. |
▪ IV. stob, v.1 dial.
(stɒb)
[Prob. f. stob n.1 Cf. stab v.]
trans. To stab. Also fig.
| 1529 Rastell Pastyme (1811) 132 Swanus..stobyd hym [Alphege] to deth at Greenwych. 1607 Reg. Privy Council Scot. XIV. 482 [They] with thair drawin suordis..stobbit the beddis within the said hous for my bodilie harme. 1632 Lithgow Trav. iii. 91 My designe is, to stob him with a knife this night. 1643 Baker Chron., Edw. VI, 74 A Commissioner..was suddenly by a Priest stobbed into the body with a knife. 1678 Sir J. Lauder (Fountainhall) Hist. Notices (Bannatyne Club 1848) I. 186 They say Major Johnston undertook to stob him, if he had attempted ane escape. 1683 Tryon Way to Health 456 No Swearing, nor stobbing Heaven with dreadful Execrations. 1700 in Spalding Club Miscell. (1846) III. 186 M{supc}Phersone came in to his house, and spilt his ale, and stobbed the bed, seeking the deponent. |
▪ V. stob, v.2 Sc. and north. dial.
(stɒb)
Also 6 Sc. stoib.
[f. stob n.1]
1. trans. (See quot. 1855.)
| 1550 Abstr. Protocols Town Clerks Glasgow (1894) I. 18 Twa howssis on the eist syide..as thai are now stobbit. 1605 Ibid. (1896) II. 116 Ane peice of waist grund..as the samin is alreddie stobbit and martchit. 1855 Whitby Gloss., Stob, to stick stobs, or small posts or quasi-posts, into the ground for the purpose of defining the limits, or the shape of any thing, as a Railway, a house, an enclosure. |
2. To roof with stob-thatch.
| 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. (Rolls) III. 227 Trynchis [he] gart mak..And stoibbit thame with ryce quhen that wes done. 1900 C. Murray Hamewith 30 And the thatch ance sae neatly stobbit Has lang been scant and bare. |