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
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
verb
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to make or mend (shoes)
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to put together clumsily
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:
I spend years researching and writing books that cobble together the nuggets of information I’ve gathered.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 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
To cobble together the package of content you want requires subscribing to multiple services at ever-increasing cost.
From MarketWatch ● May 28, 2026
The “gig economy” entered the lingo in 2009, as increasing numbers of people tried to cobble two or more part-time, no-benefit “gigs” into a living wage.
From Barron's ● May 20, 2026
I was growing tired of spending time and money trying to cobble together a wardrobe that satisfied my aesthetic and my religious beliefs.
From "Proud" by Ibtihaj Muhammad
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
"It's kind of a Frankenstein's monster of a policy change that's been kind of cobbled together," he said.
From BBC ● Apr. 12, 2026
The summer of 1886 found the artist in Honfleur, whose historic character and cobbled streets had long made it a haunt for painters, including the Impressionists, and tourists.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 28, 2026
Quickly he slipped up a cobbled street, turned into a garden, stripped off his uniform and hung it on a clothesline.
From "Johnny Tremain" by Esther Hoskins Forbes
Big tech companies are cobbling together off-grid power systems to match their rushed timelines for AI development.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 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
So he did his first experiment at the University of Utah by cobbling together about $30 in parts.
From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel
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.
