Word forms: plural, 3rd person singular presenttense mobs, present participle mobbing, past tense, past participle mobbed
1. countable noun
A mob is a large, disorganized, and often violent crowd of people.
Bottles and cans were hurled on the terraces by the mob.
The inspectors watched a growing mob of demonstrators gathering.
Synonyms: crowd, pack, collection, mass More Synonyms of mob
2. singular noun
People sometimes use the mob to refer in a disapproving way to the majority of people in a country or place, especially when these people are behaving in a violent or uncontrolled way.
[disapproval]
If they continue like this, there is a danger of the mob taking over.
They have been exercising what amounts to mob rule.
Synonyms: masses, rabble [derogatory], hoi polloi, scum More Synonyms of mob
3. singular noun
You can refer to the people involved in organized crime as theMob.
[informal]
...casinos that the Mob had operated.
It was a Mob killing.
4. verb [usually passive]
If you say that someone is being mobbedby a crowd of people, you mean that the people are trying to talk to them or get near them in an enthusiastic or threatening way.
Her car was mobbed by the media. [beVERB-ed]
They found themselves being mobbed in the street for autographs. [beVERB-ed]
Synonyms: surround, besiege, overrun, jostle More Synonyms of mob
More Synonyms of mob
mob in British English
(mɒb)
noun
1.
a.
a riotous or disorderly crowd of people; rabble
b.
(as modifier)
mob law
mob violence
2. often derogatory
a group or class of people, animals, or things
3. Australian and New Zealand
a flock (of sheep) or a herd (of cattle, esp when droving)
4. often derogatory
the masses
5. slang
a gang of criminals
verbWord forms: mobs, mobbing or mobbed(transitive)
6.
to attack in a group resembling a mob
7.
to surround, esp in order to acclaim
they mobbed the film star
8.
to crowd into (a building, plaza, etc)
9.
(of a group of animals of a prey species) to harass (a predator)
Derived forms
mobber (ˈmobber)
noun
mobbish (ˈmobbish)
adjective
Word origin
C17: shortened from Latin mōbile vulgus the fickle populace; see mobile
MOB in British English
abbreviation for
mobile phone
mobile phone in British English
noun
a portable telephone that works by means of a cellular radio system
mob in American English
(mɑb)
noun
1.
a disorderly and lawless crowd; rabble
2.
any crowd
3.
the masses; common people collectively
a contemptuous term
4. Informal
a.
a gang of criminals
b.
organized crime, specif. the Mafia (sense 2) Mafia (sense 2a)
verb transitiveWord forms: mobbed or ˈmobbing
5.
to crowd around and attack
6.
to crowd around and jostle, annoy, etc., as in curiosity or anger
7.
to fill with many people; throng
SIMILAR WORDS: crowd
Derived forms
mobbish (ˈmobbish)
adjective
Word origin
< L mobile (vulgus), movable (crowd)
Examples of 'mob' in a sentence
mob
Before long, mob bosses were wondering whether he should disappear on a permanent basis.
Times, Sunday Times (2017)
Yet within a few years, she could not walk outside without being mobbed.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
He was reportedly obliged to leave London under a police escort, pursued by an angry mob.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
Both had to clamber over a fence to escape a mob, angry over a planned 2,900 job losses.
The Sun (2016)
Then a few feet further on she is mobbed by a group of screaming schoolgirls.
The Sun (2015)
Crowds mobbed their box and had to be moved along by the police.
Amanda Mackenzie Stuart Consuelo & Alva: Love and Power in the Gilded Age (2005)
We were mobbed by people wanting to take photos.
The Sun (2013)
The mobs stoned cars and looted shops.
Times, Sunday Times (2008)
That night the townships erupted in violence and mobs went on the rampage.
Times, Sunday Times (2006)
It is a scene from a mob film.
Times, Sunday Times (2013)
But an emergency crew arrived only to be surrounded by a mob outside the family home.
The Sun (2009)
The trains were mobbed as people tried to climb on to join them.
Times, Sunday Times (2009)
Mob surrounds the car and threats to turn it over.
Times, Sunday Times (2011)
Yet the mob continued to attack.
Deborah Cadbury THE LOST KING OF FRANCE: Revolution, Revenge and the Search for Louis XVII (2002)
Yesterday morning, the hugely popular politician was mobbed by adoring crowds before his big speech.
The Sun (2013)
Yet a mob attacked two policemen in a Croydon shopping centre in broad daylight.
The Sun (2008)
The fear of missing out may make it easy to assemble a crowd, but angry mobs do not become us.
Christianity Today (2000)
A larger white mob fought back.
Times, Sunday Times (2009)
In other languages
mob
British English: mob NOUN
A mob is a large, disorganized, and often violent crowd of people.
The police watched a growing mob of demonstrators gathering.
American English: mob
Brazilian Portuguese: multidão
Chinese: 一大群乱民
European Spanish: multitud
French: foule
German: Mob
Italian: folla in tumulto
Japanese: 暴徒
Korean: 군중
European Portuguese: multidão
Latin American Spanish: turba
British English: mob VERB
If you say that someone is being mobbed by a crowd of people, you mean that the people are trying to talk to them or get near them in an enthusiastic or threatening way.