nobble
Americanverb (used with object)
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to drug or disable (a race horse) to prevent its winning a race.
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to convince (a person) by fraudulent methods; misrepresent or lie to.
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to swindle; defraud.
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to seize (a person); hold for arrest.
verb
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to disable (a racehorse), esp with drugs
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to win over or outwit (a person) by underhand means
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to suborn (a person, esp a juror) by threats, bribery, etc
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to steal; filch
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to get hold of; grab
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to kidnap
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of nobble
First recorded in 1840–50; back formation from nobbler, variant of hobbler ( def. ) (dialectal phrase an 'obbler being taken as a nobbler )
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:
Several who have been subject to the office’s inquiries were involved in the effort, at a closed-door meeting of Republican congressmen, to nobble it.
From Economist ● Jan. 5, 2017
The senior officer denied allegations that the man was held and questioned in a bid to "nobble" him and sabotage attempts by Brendan McConville and John Paul Wootton to overturn their convictions.
From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2013
It must be tempting to nobble a rival.
From Economist ● Aug. 25, 2011
Oakeshott warns: "It is as wrong as it is stupid for anyone in Whitehall to be trying to nobble the Vickers commission even before it has done its interim report."
From The Guardian ● Apr. 2, 2011
If the few nobble the quids Spite of Nature, wy Nature's a noodle as cannot purtect her own kids.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 98, February 22nd, 1890 by Various
If this player turns up and is not nobbled by either Manchester United in the FA Cup final or Inter Milan in the Champions League final I am convinced City will achieve the Treble.
From BBC ● May 29, 2023
A couple of hours before, Asher-Smith revealed a hamstring problem had nobbled her chances.
From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2021
Independence Day: Resurgence nobbled the original’s hero, Will Smith’s Steven Hiller, leaving behind a grieving son who then had to watch Roland Emmerich drop a million tonnes of masonry on his mum.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 21, 2020
Apparently even Private Eye was nobbled this way.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 10, 2013
And I'd hardly got there when a fellow who's getting up the ship's concert to-morrow night nobbled me to do something for it.
From The Girl on the Boat by P. G. (Pelham Grenville) Wodehouse
I seem to remember Iceland winning after nobbling Zaire's Pelé-like talisman, who played in bare feet.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 6, 2013
By nobbling Flood, South Africa removed England's most experienced player from the match.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 24, 2012
I seem to remember Iceland winning after nobbling Zaire's Pele-like talisman, who played in bare feet.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 8, 2010
The track's under a glass shield to stop you nobbling the horses.
From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell
He is very musical, and when he and Rex get nobbling over the piano and organ—there they stick!!
From Juliana Horatia Ewing And Her Books by Horatia K. F. Eden
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.
