mob v.1
1. vi. to move around with or act in a crowd, thus mobbed up, crowded.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | London Spy VII 175: The unfortunate Madams [...] were forc’d to Mob it on Foot with the rest of their Sisters. | |
| Vulgus Britannicus IV 45: That they might learn when Young and Bold, / To Mob with better Grace when Old. | |
| Marvel 3 Mar. 6: We’ve mobbed together to protect a little rat like Beilby. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Ulysses 306: The Santry boy was declared victor to the frenzied cheers of the public who broke through the ringropes and fairly mobbed him with delight. | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Pagan Game (1969) 68: Look at those idiots [...] mobbing about and having a gay old time. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | ‘Gin and Juice’ 🎵 As I mob with the Dogg Pound, feel the breeze. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Dead Man’s Trousers [24]: We shuffle into a mobbed-out pub in Govanhill and manage tae get served. |
2. to attack in a large group; thus mobbing n.; cite 1826 refers to a single assailant.
| Immodest Wearing of Hoop-Petticoats I 32: Pride, which is rivetted as close to them as the Itch to the Blue-coat Boys of Christ’s Hospital, or mobbing to the Blue-wastcoat Prentices of Bridewell. | |
| 12 Nov. Letters I (1891) 89: The city-shops are full of favours, the streets of marrowbones and cleavers, and the night will be full of mobbing, bonfires and lights. | |
| Englishman in Paris in Works (1799) I 37: Mobb’d! I should be glad to see that — No! they han’t spirit enough to mob here. | |
| Pierce Egan’s Life in London 13 Aug. 646/2: She had been given in charge [...] by one Mr. John Dickie [...] for mobbing him and boxing his ears with a bucket! | |
| Tom Brown at Oxford (1880) 29: You’ll never be able to wear them [i.e. very gaudy trousers]; even in Oxford the boys would mob you. | |
| Sl. Dict. 226: Mob to hustle, crowd round, and annoy, necessarily the action of a large party against a smaller one, or an individual. Mobbing is generally a concomitant of street robbery. | |
| Tales of Mean Streets (1983) 49: The situation being explained (an expression devised to include mobbings and kickings and flingings into docks). | |
| Powers That Prey 79: ‘Mob ’em!’ cried one indignant citizen. | |
| Everlasting Mercy 41: ‘We’ll give him hell.’ ‘By God, we’ll mob him.’. | |
| Boys’ Realm 16 Jan. 267: Mob ’im, boys! | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Foveaux 240: Engaged in mobbing policemen or tongue lashing ‘scabs’. | |
| ‘Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner’ Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner (1960) 35: Tarts who’d mob me when they saw who I was. | |
| Diaries 21 Feb. 186: Mobbed by people and autograph hunters until it became embarrassing. | |
| Executioner 104: [I]n the South [of Ireland] the risk of a mobbing was much greater. | |
| Life and Times of Little Richard 73: In the intermission, you went to the bar to get a drink, people’d mob you. | |
| ‘Unstoppable Sl.’ in Columbia Missourian 19 Oct. 1A; 8A: mobbing – yelling, beating up on someone. |
3. (Aus. prison) vtr. to move groups of people, e.g. prisoners .
| Doing Time 143: You’re mobbed in to wash, you’re mobbed in to eat, you’re mobbed everywhere you go. |
4. (US black) to associate.
| ‘The Next Episode’ 🎵 You know I’m mobbin with the D.R.E. | |
| Portable Promised Land (ms.) 158: We Words (My Favorite Things) [...] Never slippin. Set trippin. Steady mobbin. Keep steppin. |
In phrases
1. connected with, usu. in a criminal context, but other than with organized crime.
| ‘Fly Paper’ Story Omnibus (1966) 38: Who’s he mobbed up with? | |
| ‘Gentlemen, the King!’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 171: He is mobbed up with some very good people in Philly in his day. | |
| Layer Cake 190: They reckon this geezer’s mobbed up with you-know-who from outta town. | |
| ‘A Cock and Balls Story’ Oz ser. 4 ep. 1 [TV script] Not every Italian-American is mobbed up. | |
| (con. 1973) Johnny Porno 18: Last thing NYPD needs now is a film of one of its own shaking down a mobbed-up bar. | |
| The Force [ebook] No one jacks with mobbed up guys. |
2. connected with or run by organized crime.
| Serpico 222: The informant said that the person he had in mind was ‘heavy,’ an Italian who was ‘mobbed up. | |
| Carlito’s Way 20: He was mobbed up with the Pleasant Avenue outfit. | |
| Vice Cop 214: ‘Sal Montali was simply introduced as one of his American cousins. No questions asked. The partners probably figured Sal was mobbed up’ . | |
| Angel of Montague Street (2004) 120: My mother’s father was the guy that was really mobbed up [...] Domenic Scalia. | |
| Border [ebook] Staten Island, which is as mobbed up as it is copped up. | |
| (con. 1962) Enchanters 31: Your ‘assumed’ mobbed-up status. |
(US Und.) to murder on the instructions of a criminal gang.
| Green Ice (1988) 55: Cherulli had it coming and was mobbed out. | |
| ‘About Kid Deth’ in Penzler Pulp Fiction (2007) 288: What did you mob out Lou Rands for? |
1. to join a gang.
| ‘The Golden Horseshoe’ in Continental Op (1975) 49: He couldn’t tell me where Ashcraft had lived [...] or who he had mobbed up with. | |
| et al. DAUL 139/1: Mob up. To associate oneself with a criminal gang in preference to operating independently; to ally oneself with a criminal gang, syndicate, or faction. | |
| Friends of Eddie Coyle 59: I got a line that the brothers’re mobbing up. |
2. to collect in a gang.
| Awaydays 43: Most of The pack start to mob up behind the kiosk. | |
| Powder 28: [They] had all mobbed up in front of the stage. | |
| (con. 1980s) Skagboys 14: Some boys mob up and start chuckin stanes at the polis. |
3. to ally oneself with.
| ‘Assistant Murderer’ in Nightmare Town (2001) 143: If there’s any gravy you’ll get yours, but don’t count on me mobbing up with you. | |
| ‘The Boomer’s Blues’ in Hobo’s Hornbook 242: Mob up and flop down around me, / Punch wind with an old-time ’bo. |