cob
noun
a corncob.
cob
1 American
[kob]
/ kɒb /
noun
cobs
plural
-
a corncob.
-
a male swan.
-
a short-legged, thick-set horse, often having a high gait and frequently used for driving.
-
British. a mixture of clay and straw, used as a building material.
-
British Dialect. a rounded mass or lump.
-
a crude silver or gold Spanish-American coin of the 16th to 18th centuries, characteristically irregular in shape and bearing only a partial impression of the dies from which it was struck.
COB
2
American
abbreviation
Business.
cob
1
British
/ kɒb /
noun
-
a male swan
-
a thickset short-legged type of riding and draught horse
-
short for corncob corncob pipe cobnut
-
another name for hazel
-
a small rounded lump or heap of coal, ore, etc
-
a building material consisting of a mixture of clay and chopped straw
-
Also called: cob loaf. a round loaf of bread
verb
cob
2
British
/ kɒb /
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of cob
First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English cobbe “male swan, leader of a gang”; these and various subsequent senses are obscurely related and probably in part of distinct origin
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:
California earlier this year rejected citizen-led proposals to adopt cob, hemp-lime and light straw clay in its code, and recently rejected a petition to reconsider.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 28, 2025
Meanwhile, I can barely look at a corn on the cob without flinching.
From Salon ● Dec. 15, 2024
His Nando's order - plain chicken burger, straight chips, corn cob - comes bland and beige.
From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2024
The researchers did find genes related to cob size -- perhaps representing an increased yield potential -- and flowering time, which likely helped maize, a tropical crop, to grow at higher latitudes with longer days.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 30, 2023
They used a homemade gadget for scraping corn off the cob and added globs of butter, cream, and salt.
From "Three Little Words: A Memoir" by Ashley Rhodes-Courter
In 2025, inflation soared to 20 percent, prompting the country's largest trade union COB to demand a wage increase of the same percentage.
From Barron's ● May 21, 2026
The COB report noted that the Deadly Force Review Board hasn’t met in more than 2 ½ years.
From Seattle Times ● May 5, 2021
“I need this done by COB tomorrow,” Manafort emailed Gates at 3 a.m. the next day.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 10, 2018
"COB" was Jeremy Corbyn's codename, that much was obvious.
From BBC ● Feb. 25, 2018
COB, a word of unknown origin with a variety of meanings, which the New English Dictionary considers may be traced to the notions of something stout, big, round, head or top.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 5 "Clervaux" to "Cockade" by Various
It looks like charcoal, but the black briquettes are actually made from plant waste: millet and sesame stalks, palm fronds and cobs.
From Barron's ● Apr. 24, 2026
Within an hour, the cobs will be inside a refrigerated pack-house and chilled down to 0C.
From BBC ● Feb. 18, 2026
I learned that the distillery makes its bourbon from local Jimmy Red corn, which was two cobs away from extinction before High Wire rescued it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 2, 2026
Above, a large skylight is adorned with hundreds of suspended corn cobs, their illuminated forms offering one of the few sources of light in the dark and moody, monochromatic space.
From Salon ● Oct. 13, 2024
There would be only a few cobs on each plant, and the kernels would be small and deformed.
From "Ceremony:" by Leslie Marmon Silko
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
