hob
1 Americannoun
-
a projection or shelf at the back or side of a fireplace, used for keeping food warm.
-
a rounded peg or pin used as a target in quoits and similar games.
-
a game in which such a peg is used.
-
Machinery. a milling cutter for gear and sprocket teeth, splines, threads, etc., having helically arranged teeth and fed across the work as the work is rotated.
verb (used with or without object)
noun
idioms
-
raise hob, to cause a destructive commotion; behave disruptively.
They raised such hob with their antagonistic questions that the meeting broke up.
-
play hob with, to do mischief or harm to.
The child played hob with my radio, and now it won't work at all.
noun
-
the flat top part of a cooking stove, or a separate flat surface, containing hotplates or burners
-
a shelf beside an open fire, for keeping kettles, etc, hot
-
a steel pattern used in forming a mould or die in cold metal
-
a hard steel rotating cutting tool used in machines for cutting gears
verb
noun
-
a hobgoblin or elf
-
a male ferret
-
informal to cause mischief or disturbance
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of hob1
First recorded in 1505–15; variant of obsolete hub “hob (in a fireplace)”; perhaps identical with hub
Origin of hob2
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English, special use of Hob(be), for Robert or Robin
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:
She said: "She was majorly confused it was like the wires were getting crossed in her brain. She would make cold cups of tea and iron shirts on top of the hob."
From BBC ● May 7, 2025
Many of us can relate to oil and gas: Filling up the car, putting a pan on the hob.
From BBC ● Feb. 6, 2025
Food residue that is stuck on the hob will start to burn as soon as the hob is turned on.
From Salon ● Apr. 24, 2023
The cooker hood removes particles generated from the back rings of a hob more easily than from the front rings, where more pollutants can escape into the room.
From Salon ● Apr. 24, 2023
Sitting on the balcony is the owl-faced hob.
From "The Cruel Prince" by Holly Black
In England Davis hobbed so intimately with the nobs that the P.M.,
From Time Magazine Archive
For perhaps 5,500 years man has started off with molten metal, which he has then cast, forged, rolled, extruded, hammered, machined, hobbed, drilled, milled and ground.
From Time Magazine Archive
During the dinner the chairman did his best to make himself pleasant, and hobbed and nobbed unreservedly with his immediate neighbours....
From The History of "Punch" by Spielmann, M. H. (Marion Harry)
Except for the tramp of a sentry's hobbed boots over the sidewalks and the challenging call of another sentry round the corner the town was as silent as a town of tombs.
From Paths of Glory Impressions of War Written at and Near the Front by Cobb, Irvin S. (Irvin Shrewsbury)
At time-serving Arthur Wolfe's, for instance, Clare hobbed and nobbed with the disaffected; such, that is, as had not gone so far as to frighten the well-meaning attorney-general.
From My Lords of Strogue, Vol. II (of III) A Chronicle of Ireland, from the Convention to the Union by Wingfield, Lewis
However, a worry for Ulster was the sight of Williams hobbing off.
From BBC ● Jan. 11, 2013
But she soon found a cure for his passion, By hobbing or nobbing at dinner, With Paris, a Trojan of fashion.
From The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 10, No. 284, November 24, 1827 by Various
In hobbing the dies it is necessary that they be all of equal length so that the hob may cut an equal depth in each, and may, therefore, work steadily and hob them true.
From Modern Machine-Shop Practice, Volumes I and II by Rose, Joshua
And it's all very well for Larry Twentyman to be hobbing and nobbing with the likes of them Botseys.
From The American Senator by Trollope, Anthony
Striking a match, there was his apron shrouding his hobbing foot.
From London River by Tomlinson, H. M. (Henry Major)
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.
