or jawbation, subs. (old).—A tedious rebuke; a prolonged scolding; a dreary homily.
1746. SIR W. MAYNARD [in George Selwyn and His Contemporaries, by J. H. JESSE, i. p. 106 (ed. 1882)]. You would not commend yourself for having sent me a JOBATION for not punctually answering your obliging letters.
1767. COLMAN, The Oxonian in Town, ii. 3. And now I find you as dull and melancholy as a fresh-man at college after a JOBATION.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. JOBATION, a reproof.
1803. Gradus ad Cantabrigiam. He recounts this JOBATION to his friends.
1811. GROSE and CLARKE, Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
1820. COMBE, Dr. Syntax, Consolation, canto 5. For Patrick, fearing a JOBATION, Said nought to forward conversation.
1859. G. W. MATSELL, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.
1861. T. HUGHES, Tom Brown at Oxford, xlii. 410. But here I am at the end of my paper. Don’t be angry at my JOBATION; but write me a long answer of your own free will, and believe me ever affectionately yours.
1863. H. KINGSLEY, Austin Elliot, xiv. Away he went, after getting a most fearful JOBATION from the Dean for daring to appear in his presence without his cap and gown.
1883. W. C. RUSSELL, Sailors Language, s.v.
1884. G. A. SALA, Illustrated London News, 6 Sept., p. 219, col. 2. ‘Why,’ writes ‘R.R.R.’ (Holloway), ‘do you write the word JOBATION, and thereby upset all my preconceived notions that ‘jawbation’ is a mock solemnity for the vulgar ‘jaw’?’ My good sir, I wrote, JOBATION because the word means a long dreary homily or reprimand, and has reference to the tedious rebukes inflicted on the Patriarch Job by his too obliging friends.
