The AI-powered English dictionary
countable and uncountable, plural gobs
(countable) A lump of soft or sticky material. quotations examples
These inventors have discovered that gobs may be fed at widely spaced times without allowing the glass to flow during the interval but instead flushes[sic] out the chilled glass which accumulates during the dwell.
1952, The Glass Industry, Volume 33, Ashlee Publishing Company, page 309
(uncountable, slang) Saliva or phlegm.
(US, regional) A whoopee pie. examples
third-person singular simple present gobs, present participle gobbing, simple past and past participle gobbed
To gather into a lump. quotations examples
I liked to gob up two or three worms on a snelled hook, pinch three or four split shot onto the leader, and plunk it into the dark water.
1997 March, William G. Tapply, How to Catch a Trout on a Sandwich, Field & Stream, page 60
(slang, transitive, intransitive) To spit, especially to spit phlegm.
plural gobs
(countable, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, slang) The mouth. quotations
Now washing you will be like washing a goth / All that black lipstick around their gobs
2005, “Tango”, in Public Warning, performed by Lady Sovereign
(uncountable, mining) Waste material in old mine workings, goaf. quotations examples
This consisted in wheeling gob back to the most distant part of the stope and filling up the sets right up to the roof.
1930, Engineering and Mining Journal, volume 130, page 330
(mining, intransitive) To pack away waste material in order to support the walls of the mine. examples
(US, military, slang) A sailor. quotations
Well I have taken the oath of allegiance for 4 years service anywhere in the world and am now a real 'gob' in the U. S. Navy.
1918 October 22, Letter of Adlai Stevenson, quoted in John Bartlow Martin, Adlai Stevenson of Illinois: The Life of Adlai E. Stevenson (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1976), page 53
If it weren't for the Fleet I should scarcely be able to endure it. Gobs are always amusing, as you know.
1928, Hart Crane, letter, 27 April
Full-cut, dashing "gob" slacks with back pocket.
1937, Stella Blum, Everyday Fashion of the Thirties as pictured in Sears Catalogs, published 1986, page 94
For the first time in history, new warship crews are virtually “prefabricated” by modern methods of fitting the gob to the job.
1944 November, Fitting the Gob to the Job, Popular Mechanics, page 18
Taking a safe average of 2,000 rehabilitated young gobs a year, that′s a total of 100,000 years of salvaged manhood, a target worth shooting at.
1948 June, Fred B. Barton, Mending Broken Gobs, The Rotarian, page 22