Obs. [Of unascertained origin; some have thought it an assibilated form of GOB sb.1; but, beside the phonetic difficulty, the approximation of sense is only distant.]
1. A small compact portion of some substance; a piece, lump; a stump, block; a tassel.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 11941. Robbet þere Riches … Gemmes, & Iewels, Iobbes of gold.
1587. Golding, De Mornay, xii. 210. Sometimes [God] letteth vs goe alone by our selues … and then stumble we at the next iob yt we meete with.
1659. E. Burrough, Reign Whore, 11. Why must you have a soft Cushion with silken Jobs at the corners to lean on [etc.]?
2. A cart-load, or what a horse and cart can bring at one time.
[It is not clear whether the essential notion is that of the mass or amount carried by a cart, or that of which the carrying constitutes a single job. In the latter case this would belong rather to JOB sb.2, and might perh. be the link uniting the two words.]
1560. Stanford Church-w. Acc., in Antiquary (1888), April, 168. For faching a Jobbe of thorns and mending the hedges aboute the churche howsse xd. Ibid. (1571), 170. For iij Jobbs of Strawe and the Caryage vijs. iiijd. [Cf. Jobbel, Jobbet, a small load, generally or hay or straw: widely used in Midland and Southern dialects.]
