hob

• (General American) enPR: hŏb, IPA^(key): /hɑb/
• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: hŏb, IPA^(key): /hɒb/

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• Rhymes: -ɒb

Related to hub, but the ultimate origin of both words is obscure.

hob (plural hobs)

1. A kind of cutting tool, used to cut the teeth of a gear.
2. (historical) The flat projection or iron shelf at the side of a fire grate, where things are put to be kept warm.
   • 1898, Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, Book the Second, Chapter V (The Jackal):

     They went into a dingy room lined with books and littered with papers, where there was a blazing fire. A kettle steamed upon the hob, and in the midst of the wreck of papers a table shone, with plenty of wine upon it, and brandy, and rum, and sugar, and lemons.

3. (British, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand) The top cooking surface on a cooker; a cooktop. It typically comprises several cooking elements (often four), also known as 'rings'.
   • 1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter 2, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC:

     And the first sound in the house was the bang, bang of the poker against the raker, as Morel smashed the remainder of the coal to make the kettle, which was filled and left on the hob, finally boil.

4. A rounded peg used as a target in several games, especially in quoits.
5. A male ferret.
6. The hub of a wheel.
   • August 31 1776, George Washington, letter to the President of Congress

     the wheels of the carriages sinking up to the hobs rendered it impossible for our whole force to drag them.

• (cooking surface): (US, Canada) cooktop, stovetop

hob (third-person singular simple present hobs, present participle hobbing, simple past and past participle hobbed)

1. (transitive) To create (a gear) by cutting with a hob.
2. (intransitive) To engage in the process of cutting gears with a hob.

From Middle English Hob (a diminutive of Robin, an Old French [Term?] diminutive of Robert), through its connection with Robin Goodfellow and (later) the devil. Compare hobgoblin; see robin.

hob (plural hobs)

1. (obsolete) A fairy; a sprite; an elf; a bogey.
   • 1610–1616, John Fletcher, “Monsieur Thomas. A Comedy.”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, Act IV, scene vi:

     From elves, hobs, and fairies, […] Defend us, good Heaven!

2. (obsolete) A countryman; a rustic or yokel.
   • 1682, Langley Curtis, New News from Bedlam:

     More fitter for the Country Hobs.

• (supernatural creature): See goblin (hostile)

• play hob with, raise hob

• “hob”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• BHO, BOH, HBO, boh

From Old Danish hob, from Middle Low German hōp, from Old Saxon hōp, from Proto-West Germanic *haup (“heap”), cognate with English heap. Late Old Norse hópr and Swedish hop are also borrowed from Low German.

• IPA^(key): /hoːˀb/, [ˈhoˀb̥]

hob c (singular definite hoben, plural indefinite hobe)

1. crowd, multitude (a large amount of people or animals)
2. (derogatory) common people
3. heap
4. (computer science) heap

• galaksehob
• hoben (“crowd, heap”, noun)
• hobe (“to heap”, verb)
• til hobe (“together”, adverb)

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hob

1. first/third-person singular preterite of heben

hob (with accusative)

1. Obsolete spelling of wob