verb. (pugilists’).—1. To strike on the head; to stun.
2. (racing).—See quot. 1882; TO GET AT (q.v.).
1868. Pall Mall Gazette, 4 May. Buccaneer underwent the same fate as Old Calabar, and was NOBBLED, i.e., maimed purposely, before the Two Thousand in which he was engaged, and this rascally proceeding drove Lord Portsmouth, from the turf in disgust.
1882. The Saturday Review, 25 March. In the elegant dialect of sporting novelists to NOBBLE is a stronger term for to ‘get at’ a horse, or his owner or his jockey, and to ‘get at’ means secretly to frustrate, spoil, lame, dose, drug, or otherwise prevent the horse from ‘doing his level best,’ or for that matter his best across hurdles, or in a steeple-chase.
1888. N. GOULD, The Double Event, 145. Found out who tried to NOBBLE the horse?
1892. Evening Standard, 11 May, 4, 4. A very sensible suggestion has been made with reference to the NOBBLING of horses. It is extremely improbable that there would be any attempt to injure a horse except for the purpose of winning bets of one sort or another about him.
1877. GREENWOOD, Dick Temple [A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant]. There’s a fiver in the puss, and nine good quid. Have it. NOBBLE him, lads, and share it betwixt you.
1883. Punch, 2 June, 264, 1. Never have anything to do with the Turf. They are all scamps alike, and would sell their own fathers to gain their ends. But if you can’t resist it, like me, there’s only one chance for you, and that is, to NOBBLE the jockey!
1886. Fortnightly Review, xxxix. 136. It was never certain whether he was going to NOBBLE the Tories, or square the Radicals.
1890. GRANT ALLEN, The Tents of Shem, xii. I’ve NOBBLED her, he thought to himself, with a triumphant smile.
1896. G. A. SALA, London up to Date, 67. The proposers and seconders of the various candidates have warily ranged themselves on guard … and remain there hour after hour, skilfully NOBBLING members as they enter.
4. (common).—To appropriate; to catch; TO NAB (q.v.).
1855. THACKERAY, The Newcomes, xxv. I don’t know out of how much the reverend party has NOBBLED his poor old sister at Brighton.
1860. THACKERAY, The Adventures of Philip, xvi. The old chap has NOBBLED the young fellow’s money, almost every shilling of it, I hear.
1888. BOLDREWOOD, Robbery under Arms, xi. We’re bound to be NOBBLED some day.
