subs. (old: now recognised).—1. The populace; the crowd. [A contraction of mobile vulgus.] Also MOBILITY and MOBOCRACY.
1686. D’URFEY, A Commonwealth of Women, ‘Dedication.’ The MOBILE being all poison’d with the pernitious Tenets of a misled, ungrateful Usurper.
1688. SHADWELL, The Squire of Alsatia, i., in Works (1720), iv. 15. Sham. This Morning your Cloaths and Liveries will come home, and thou shalt appear rich and splendid like thy self, and the MOBILE shall worship thee.
1690. DRYDEN, Don Sebastian, iv. 1. She singled you out with her eye, as commander in chief of the MOBILITY.
1694. Country Conversations [Notes and Queries, S. vi. 126]. ‘I cannot approve of the word MOB, in these verses, which though significant enough, yet is a word but of Late Use, and not sufficiently Naturalized to appear in a serious Poem: Besides I esteem it a kind of Burlesque word and unsuitable to the Dignity of Horace.’
1702. CENTLIVRE, The Beau’s Duel, ii. 1. If so, you’ll have both the MOB and the law on your side.
1703. WARD, The London Spy, pt. VI. p. 140. The House was surrounded with the MOBILITY, that it look’d like the Welsh-Cow-keepers-camp, consisting of a number of both Sexes, of all sorts and sizes.
1711. Spectator, No. 135. It is perhaps this humour of speaking no more words than we needs must which has so miserably curtailed some of our words, that in familiar writings and conversation they often lose all but their first syllables, as in MOB., red., pos., incog., and the like.
1719. D’URFEY, Wit and Mirth; or Pills to Purge Melancholy, v. 308. Damsel with Squire, and MOB in the Mire.
1740. R. NORTH, Examen, p. 574. I may note that the rabble first changed their title, and were called the MOB, in the assemblies of this club (the Green Ribbon club 1680–82), first mobile vulgus, then contracted in one syllable.
1755. JOHNSON, A Dictionary of the English Language [1815], s.v. MOBILITY. … In cant language, the populace.
1780. SOPHIA LEE, The Chapter of Accidents, ii. 1. Brid. I don’t love to go much among the MOBILITY, neither.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.
1811. GROSE and CLARKE, Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
1822. SCOTT, The Fortunes of Nigel, ix. The court-yard for the MOBILITY, and the apartments for the nobility.
1859. G. W. MATSELL, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.
1878. J. R. GREEN, A Short History of the English People, ch. x. § i. p. 729. When MOBS were roaring themselves hoarse for ‘Wilkes and liberty.’
1851–61. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, i. p. 234. Some classes of patterers, I may here observe, work in schools or MOBS of two, three, or four.
1859. G. W. MATSELL, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v. MOBS. A number of thieves working together.
3. (Australian).—A number of horses, or cattle; part of a flock of sheep: a flock is the total number of fleeces tended by one shepherd; any portion of it being a MOB.
1885. CAMPBELL PRAED, The Head Station, u. I wonder whether there will be a MOB of fat cattle ready for the butcher next month.
4. (common).—A strumpet (also MAB).
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.
1811. GROSE and CLARKE, Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
Verb. (old: now recognised).—To crowd; to hustle; to annoy. Hence MOBBING.
1741. H. WALPOLE, Letters, No. 9, 12 Nov. The city-shops are full of favours, the streets of marrowbones and cleavers, and the night will be full of MOBBING, bonfires, and lights.
1754. MARTIN, English Dictionary, 2nd ed. s.v.
1759. J. TOWNLEY, High Life below Stairs, i., 2. Lady Char. Ay, let us be gone; for the common people do so stare at us—we shall certainly be MOBBED.
1884. J. BURROUGHS, Birds and Poets, p. 41. They swarm about him like flies, and literally MOB him back into his dusky retreat.
SWELL-MOB. See SWELL-MOB.
