hob nob, v. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

hob nob v.

[according to Grose (1785), the custom dates to the late 16C: ‘When great chimnies were in fashion, there was at each corner of the hearth...a small elevated projection, called the hob, and behind it a seat. In winter time the beer was placed on the hob to warm; and cold beer was set on a small table, said to have been called the nob, so that the question, Will you have hob or nob, seems only to have meant Will you have warm or cold beer?’ Skeat, Etymological Dict. (1909), opts for OE hab, have, and nabban, not have, thus ‘take it or leave it’, i.e. the choice is yours]

to invite to drink and then to clink glasses; thus hob nob/hob a nob, a toast.

1763		G.A. Stevens in Adventures of a Speculist (1788) II 44: Hob nob, Sir? Done. Two bumpers of Madeira!
1772		G. Stevens ‘Extravaganza’ in Songs Comic and Satyrical 48: We’ll hob nob with Saturn, his cellar will charm us.
1786		‘Peter Pindar’ ‘Epistle to Boswell’ Works (1794) I 321: The fiddling Knight, and tuneful Miss Thrale, Who frequent hobb’d or nobb’d with Sam, in ale.
1790		J. Freeth ‘The Female Canvasser’ Political Songster 117: Whilst glass for glass, hob-nobbing pass’d, / In transports o’er his bumper.
1797		Sporting Mag. June X 173/1: A Doctor so grave and a Virgin so bright, / Hob-a-nobbed in some right Marasquin.
1800		Staffs. Advertiser 17 May 3/1: Do I go to hob or nob in white wine, I am probably told red is better.
1820		‘The Thirsty Family’ in Medley Song Book 19: At twenty I took for my rib brandy Nan, [...] We hob nob our glasses together.
1838		‘Lay of St. Nicholas’ in Bentley’s Misc. Apr. 497: O’er a jolly full bowl, sitting cheek by jowl, / And hob-nobbing away with a Devil from Hell!
1848		Thackeray Vanity Fair II 166: Many a glass of wine have we all of us drunk [...] hob-and-nobbing with the hospital giver.
1855		Elgin Courier 9 Feb. 4/6: Hob-a-Nobbing at the Canon’s Mouth [...] the Russians hold up to the French bottles and glasses, as if they invited them to drink each other’s health.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum 42: hob or nob What will you drink?
1869		W. Bradwood O.V.H. II 168: Conrades of club and chambers, who had been intimate with Mr. James Blake [...] had hob-and-nobbed with him on winter evenings.
1872		Derbys. Times 13 Apr. 7/2: he mentioned gin. We had a glass together, hob-and-nob.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 36: Hob Nob, to clink glasses in drinking.
1900–10		Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 104: Then there is hob-nob, which practically means to booze up in company.
1913		J. London John Barleycorn (1989) 111: The place where men hobnobbed with John Barleycorn.