▪ I. goblin1
(ˈgɒblɪn)
Forms: 4 gobelin, -olyn, 4–5 -elyn, 7 gobling, gobblin(g, 6– goblin.
[a. F. gobelin (obs., recorded only from the 16th c.; but in the 12th c. Ordericus Vitalis mentions Gobelinus as the popular name of a spirit which haunted the neighbourhood of {Eacu}vreux). Perh. f. med.L. cobalus, covalus, a. Gr. κόβᾱλος a rogue, knave, κόβᾱλοι wicked sprites invoked by rogues.]
1. A mischievous and ugly demon.
| a 1327 Pol. Songs (Camden) 238 Sathanas..Seyde on is sawe Gobelyn made is gerner Of gromene mawe. 1388 Wyclif Ps. xc. 6 Of an arowe fliynge in the dai, of a gobelyn goynge in derknessis. a 1400–50 Alexander 5492 Gamarody þe goblyn, anothire grym sire. c 1500 Melusine i. 4 Many manyeres of thinges, the whiche somme called Gobelyns, the other ffayrees, and the other ‘bonnes dames’ or good ladyes. 1574 J. Studley tr. Bale's Pageant Popes 73 b, They sturred vp walking spirits, bugs, goblins, fierye sightes, & diuers terrible goasts & shapes of thinges. 1600 Fairfax Tasso ix. xv. 162 The shriking gobblings each where howling flew, The Furies roare, the ghosts and Fairies yell. 1667 Milton P.L. ii. 688 To whom the Goblin [Death] full of wrath replied. 1742 Collins Ode to Fear 2 And goblins haunt from fire or fen, Or mine or flood, the walks of men. 1841 Elphinstone Hist. India I. 179 Bhutas are evil spirits of the lowest order, corresponding to our ghosts and other goblins of the nursery. 1871 B. Taylor Faust (1875) II. i. iii. 37 From goblins that deceive you, I'm unable to relieve you. |
| fig. 1703 S. Parker tr. Eusebius vi. 111 But this Goblin [a heresy] disappear'd in an instant. 1856 Emerson Eng. Traits, Wealth Wks. (Bohn) II. 71 When to this labour and trade..was added this goblin of steam. |
2. attrib. and
Comb. a. attributive, passing into an
adj. (of, pertaining to, or suitable for goblins), as
goblin appearance,
goblin cave,
goblin cheek,
goblin sport,
goblin story,
goblin word;
b. appositive, as
goblin man;
c. instrumental, as
goblin-haunted,
goblin-peopled adjs.| 1827 in Hone Every-day Bk. II. 551 The *goblin appearance of the ‘Barguest’. |
| 1810 Scott Lady of L. iii. x, Coir-Kriskin, thy *goblin Cave! |
| 1827 Pollok Course T. iv. 178 Observe his *goblin cheek; his wretched eye. |
| 1874 Green Short Hist. i. §2.12 The heap of *goblin-haunted stones. |
| 1856 Emerson Eng. Traits, Ability Wks. (Bohn) II. 34 Trolls—a kind of *goblin men. |
| 1861 E. Waugh Goblin's Grave 32 The *goblin-peopled-gloom. |
| 1842 Lytton Zanoni 22 That spirit⁓like life of sound which night after night threw itself in airy and *goblin sport over the starry seas. |
| 1726–46 Thomson Winter 619 Heard solemn, goes the *goblin story round, Till superstitious horror creeps o'er all. |
| 1649 Milton Eikon. 36 Setting aside the affrightment of this *Goblin word, Demagogue. |
Hence
ˈgoblin v. trans., to convert into a goblin (
rare);
ˈgoblinish a., goblin-like;
ˈgoblinism, belief in goblins;
ˈgoblinize v. = goblin v. (above);
ˈgoblinry, the acts or practices of goblins.
| 1829 Scott Doom Devorgoil iii. i, My nether parts Are goblinized. Ibid., Is there nothing, then, save rank imposture, In all these tales of goblinry. 1870 Lowell Among my Bks. Ser. 1. (1873) 118 Once goblinized, Herodias joins them. 1873 Contemp. Rev. XXII. 453 The nursery goblinism, grotesquerie, and allegoric wire-drawing, which are present in the Divine Comedy. 1883 P. Robinson Sinners & Saints 358 If the sunset was weird, the moonlight was positively goblinish. 1893 Leland Mem. I. 53 Even deer and doves seemed uncanny and goblined. |
▪ II. † goblin2 Obs. slang. (
ˈgɒblɪn)
Also
o'goblin.
[Shortened form of Jemmy O'Goblin.] A sovereign; twenty shillings.
| 1887 W. E. Henley Poems (1908) II. 231 Your merry goblins soon stravag. 1909 Wodehouse Swoop ii. ii. 68 Come now, your Grand Grace, is it a deal? Four hundred and fifty chinking o'Goblins a week for one hall a night. 1925 ― Carry on, Jeeves iv. 99 Five hundred o'goblins a year. |