cobble
1 Americanverb (used with object)
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to mend (shoes, boots, etc.); patch.
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to put together roughly or clumsily.
noun
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a cobblestone.
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cobbles, coal in lumps larger than a pebble and smaller than a boulder.
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Metalworking.
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a defect in a rolled piece resulting from loss of control over its movement.
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Slang. a piece showing bad workmanship.
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verb (used with object)
noun
verb
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to make or mend (shoes)
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to put together clumsily
noun
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short for cobblestone
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geology a rock fragment, often rounded, with a diameter of 64–256 mm and thus smaller than a boulder but larger than a pebble
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of cobble1
First recorded in 1490–1500; apparently back formation from cobbler
Origin of cobble2
First recorded in 1595–1605; of uncertain origin; perhaps cob + -le; see cobblestone
Origin of cobble3
First recorded in 1885–95; perhaps from cobble 2
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Other children at the shelter kick a ball around while their parents make use of food donations to cobble together meals for their little ones.
From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026
So an array of contractors built the wall out of stone and cobble in the dead of winter without a permit.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 8, 2026
But if you’re doing it on your own, you can cobble together all of this information and put it in a spreadsheet.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 29, 2026
Most parents lose sleep over the amount of piecemeal work required to cobble together a summer schedule; very few relish the planning and spreadsheets and carpool rota involved in keeping their kids safe and occupied.
From Salon ● Jun. 24, 2026
When she finally got a fire going, she set about trying to cobble together an evening meal for Harry and the boys.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
The Weimar Republic is named for the quaint, cobbled city that hosted the new state’s constituent assembly in 1919.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
There’s no more fitting description of a documentary that’s cobbled together from the dying gasps of ’90s fashion culture, when glamor and mischief reigned supreme.
From Salon ● Sep. 5, 2026
At night, the narrow cobbled streets of Old Havana are enveloped in inky black, devoid of power and virtually deserted.
From Barron's ● Aug. 18, 2026
“It seemed like they just cobbled up these ideas at the last minute,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 9, 2026
At once the bricks began to whirl and spin: A hole appeared in the middle of them, which grew wider and wider, finally forming an archway onto the narrow cobbled street that was Diagon Alley.
From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling
Their company has been prolific at cobbling together oil-rich acreage and flipping it to other energy producers in multibillion-dollar deals.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
Surprised by this unusual cobbling together of Hindu and Muslim names, the vigilantes left.
From BBC ● Feb. 12, 2026
Belgium's complex political system means that De Wever is well versed in the art of painstaking negotiations and cobbling together compromise deals.
From Barron's ● Dec. 17, 2025
It was essentially cobbling together a Frankenstein résumé from leftover pieces of information harvested from my search history, and passing it off as my own work experience.
From Slate ● Oct. 6, 2025
Workers scrambled to get the pumping system back online, patching the hoses that could be salvaged and cobbling together any new hoses they could find to replace the ones that could not.
From "Meltdown" by Deirdre Langeland
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