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:
Earlier this year, Main Street Sports Group alerted the NBA, National Hockey League and Major League Baseball that it would cease operations, leaving teams scrambling to cobble together TV coverage for their games.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
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
It was a miracle the producers were able to cobble together enough entertaining footage for three weekly shows.
From "We Are the Ants" by Shaun David Hutchinson
The businesses lining the village's cobbled main street have embraced Halloween with colourful window displays, and none more so than The Cabinet of Curiosities.
From BBC ● Oct. 31, 2026
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
Fog clung to the city walls and cobbled streets like tenacious moss.
From "The Girl Who Drank the Moon" by Kelly Barnhill
She has approached smaller foundations like the Rose Foundation, an environmental group based in Oakland, in hopes of cobbling together enough smaller pots of money for a large project.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026
Cities are also cobbling together constellations of pocket parks in heart-of-the-city neighborhoods, a fraction of an acre here and there, enough, maybe, for a picnic table or a play space.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 6, 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
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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