gob1
/ɡɒb
/informal
noun
1A lump of a viscous or slimy substance: a gob of phlegm...
- ‘I understand that feeling,’ I said softly as I picked out the chocolate chips from my gob of dough and put them in my mouth.
- A bowl accompanied by a plate of three perogies, a scoop of mashed potatoes and a gob of the ubiquitous sour cream makes a filling, comforting and extremely thrifty supper.
- Suddenly they're dressed to the hilt in 1980s sunglasses, shorts, and a thick gob of zinc oxide on their noses.
1.1North American A small lump.
2 (gobs of) North American A large amount of: they pumped gobs of money into the candidates' election coffers...
- I have heaps and gobs of miles which will be credited to my account soon… but not soon enough to get tickets.
- Some ‘market player’ was willing to throw oodles and gobs of money at the market to prevent it from falling.
- Both load up their arguments with gobs of personal invective, which also makes me suspicious of their arguments.
verb (gobs, gobbing, gobbed) [no object] British
Spit.It implies not gobbing on passersby, not binge drinking while getting pregnant at the age of 12, not taking photos with a mobile while your friends throw up on bus passengers, and definitely not wearing hoodies....
- Rather than gobbing on the campfire, Lydon has been sharing his recipe for watercress soup; the closest he got to his trademark sneer was when he was coated in molasses and birdseed and sent out to battle a flock of ostriches.
- Then he cleared his sinuses by gobbing all over his shoe, looked through the frosted glass of the front door, and then walked off towards the city.
Origin
Late Middle English: from Old French gobe 'mouthful, lump', from gober 'to swallow, gulp', perhaps of Celtic origin.
Rhymes
gob2
/ɡɒb/noun informal, dated
An American sailor.
Origin
Early 20th century: of unknown origin.
gob3
/ɡɒb/noun British informal
A person’s mouth: Jean told him to shut his big gob...
- I am going to try to be very careful in my language usage here, as I have a knack of putting my size tens, fairly and firmly in my oversized gob
- Will, however, did not succumb to what Maria feared, but actually managed the arduous task of keeping his big gob shut.
- The Home Office says all new passport photographs must be of an unsmiling face with its gob firmly shut because open mouths can confuse facial recognition systems.
Origin
Mid 16th century: perhaps from Scottish Gaelic gob 'beak, mouth'.