Also 6–7 lobbe, 9 lobb. [Perh. onomatopæic in origin. Several Teut. words of similar sound express the general notion of something heavy, clumsy, or loosely pendent: cf. e.g., EFris. lob(be hanging lump of flesh, MLG. and early mod.Du. lobbe, lubbe (mod.Du. lob, lubbe) hanging lip, also ruffle, hanging sleeve, Da. lobbes clown, bumpkin, Norw. lubb, lubba short stout person.]
† 1. The pollack. Obs. (Cf. LOB-KEELING.)
1357. Act 31 Edw. III., Stat. 3 c. 2. Les trois sortz de lob, lyng, & cod.
1607. Cowell, Interpr., Lobbe is a great kind of north sea fish.
1727. in Bailey, vol. II.
1769. Pennant, Zool., III. 161.
2. A country bumpkin; a clown, lout. Now dial.
1533. Image Ypocr., 1645. To prove oure prelates goddes And lay men very lobbes. Ibid., 2275. Frier bib, ffrier bob, ffrier lib, ffrier lob.
1550. Lever, Serm. (Arb.), 65. The rude lobbes of the countrey, whiche be to symple to paynte a lye.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., II. i. 16. Farewell thou Lob of spirits, Ile be gon.
1603. Dekker, Wonderfull Yeare, D iij. The sight of a flat-cap was dreadfull to a Lob.
1609. Holland, Amm. Marcell., XVII. ix. 91. One that, under the shew of wisedome and learning, was a very lob and foole.
1658. Cleveland, Rustick Rampant, Wks. (1687), 456. William Greyncob an Hind…. This Lob too was made principal Prolocutor.
1694. Motteux, Rabelais, IV. xlvii. The Country Lob trudg’d home very much concern’d.
1854. W. Gaskell, Lectures Dial., 13. We sometimes hear a heavy clumsy man called ‘a great lob of a felley.’
3. Something pendulous, e.g., the wattles of a fowl, hanging blossoms or ornaments, etc. rare.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 245/2. The Cock of the Mountain … hath … about the cheeks two red fleshy lobs or gills.
1876. Besant & Rice, Gold. Butterfly (1877), 3. Immense steel spurs, inlaid with silver filigree, and furnished with ‘lobs’ attached to them.
4. A lump, a large piece; a nugget (of gold); a ‘lump’ (of money). Chiefly dial.
1825–80. Jamieson, Lub, a thing heavy and unwieldy. Dumfr.
1843. W. Carleton, Traits Irish Peasantry, I. 8. Any how we’ll gain a lob by it, I’m thinking.
1847. Halliwell, Lob … (2) A very large lump. Linc.
1863. Once a Week, III. 535 (Farmer). He must have a regular lob of gold stowed away somewhere.
1884. Rogers, New Rush, I. 5. Imagine future ‘lobs’ of which they share.
5. Brewing. A thick mixture (see quot.).
For the sense cf. LOBLOLLY, LOBSCOUSE.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 103. When the wort is discharged into the gyle-tun, it must receive its dose of yeast, which has been previously mixed with a quantity of wort, and left in a warm place till it has begun to ferment. This mixture, called lobb, is then to be put into the tun, and stirred well through the mass.
6. attrib. and Comb., as lob-like adj. and adv.; † lob-coat, LOBCOCK; lob grass dial., Bromus mollis; lob-tailing vbl. sb. and ppl. a. (see quots.).
1604. Wit of a Woman (Comedy), G 3 b. My bush and my pot, cares not a groate, for such a *lob-coate, farewell.
1756. Lisle, Observ. Husb. (1757), 72. The grass which country-people call the hooded-grass, or *lob-grass, is apparently of but little value.
1605. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iii. I. Abraham, 589. He yawns; and leaning-on His (*Lob-like) elbow hears This Message don.
1611. Cotgr., Enlourdi, growne dull, sotish, lumpish, heauie-headed, lob-like.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., *Lob-tailing, the act of the sperm whale in violently beating the water with its tail.
1899. F. T. Bullen, Idylls Sea, xii. 75. It sounded … as if an extra large whale were ‘lob-tailing’—i. e. poised in the water head downwards, and striking deliberate blows upon its surface with his mighty flukes.
7. attrib. passing into adj. Rustic; clownish, loutish; clumsy. Also appos. as quasi-proper name.
1508. Dunbar, Tua Mariit Wemen, 387. I wes laith to be loppin with sic a lob avoir.
1593. ‘P. Foulface,’ Bacchus Bountie, A 4. The Beziladistes, those deuout doctors of Lob libers canne.
1603. H. Crosse, Vertues Commw. (1878), 82. It is a world of sport to heare how some such clouting beetles rowle in their loblogicke.
1613. Beaum. & Fl., Knt. Burning Pestle, III. iv. There’s a pretty tale of a Witch,… that had a Giant to her sonne, that was cald Lob-lie-by-the-fire.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, I. xxv. 116. Grouthead gnat-snappers, lob-dotterels, gaping changelings [etc.].
1873. Mrs. J. H. Ewing, Lob Lie-by-the-Fire, Introd. 3. Lob Lie-by-the-fire—the Lubber-fiend, as Milton calls him—is a rough kind of Brownie or House Elf.
1879. G. Meredith, Egoist, I. Prelude 4. They lump along like the old lob-legs of Dobbin the horse.
