mob, v.¹ — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

mob v.¹

also mob it

1. vi. to move around with or act in a crowd, thus mobbed up, crowded.

1699		N. Ward London Spy VII 175: The unfortunate Madams [...] were forc’d to Mob it on Foot with the rest of their Sisters.
1711		N. Ward Vulgus Britannicus IV 45: That they might learn when Young and Bold, / To Mob with better Grace when Old.
1919		Marvel 3 Mar. 6: We’ve mobbed together to protect a little rat like Beilby.
1922		Joyce 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.
1968		G. Slatter Pagan Game (1969) 68: Look at those idiots [...] mobbing about and having a gay old time.
1993		Snoop Doggy Dogg ‘Gin and Juice’ 🎵 As I mob with the Dogg Pound, feel the breeze.
2018		I. Welsh 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.

1722		‘Whipping-Tom’ 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.
1741		H. Walpole 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.
1753		Foote 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.
1826		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!
1861		T. Hughes 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.
1873		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.
1894		A. Morrison Tales of Mean Streets (1983) 49: The situation being explained (an expression devised to include mobbings and kickings and flingings into docks).
1900		Flynt & Walton Powers That Prey 79: ‘Mob ’em!’ cried one indignant citizen.
1911		J. Masefield Everlasting Mercy 41: ‘We’ll give him hell.’ ‘By God, we’ll mob him.’.
1926		Boys’ Realm 16 Jan. 267: Mob ’im, boys!
1939		K. Tennant Foveaux 240: Engaged in mobbing policemen or tongue lashing ‘scabs’.
1959		A. Sillitoe ‘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.
1962		K. Williams Diaries 21 Feb. 186: Mobbed by people and autograph hunters until it became embarrassing.
1974		A. Pierrepoint Executioner 104: [I]n the South [of Ireland] the risk of a mobbing was much greater.
1984		C. White Life and Times of Little Richard 73: In the intermission, you went to the bar to get a drink, people’d mob you.
1998		M. Ferguson ‘Unstoppable Sl.’ in Columbia Missourian 19 Oct. 1A; 8A: mobbing – yelling, beating up on someone.
2020		D. Soh End of Gender 7: And then, as if on cue, the mobbing began. [...] [...] I had taken aim at a sacred cow and people were very, very angry.

3. (Aus. prison) vtr. to move groups of people, e.g. prisoners .

1984

B. Ellem 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.

1999		Dr Dre ‘The Next Episode’ 🎵 You know I’m mobbin with the D.R.E.
2002		‘Touré’ Portable Promised Land (ms.) 158: We Words (My Favorite Things) [...] Never slippin. Set trippin. Steady mobbin. Keep steppin.

In phrases

mobbed up (adj.) (US Und.)

1. connected with, usu. in a criminal context, but other than with organized crime.

1929		D. Hammett ‘Fly Paper’ Story Omnibus (1966) 38: Who’s he mobbed up with?
1931		D. Runyon ‘Gentlemen, the King!’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 171: He is mobbed up with some very good people in Philly in his day.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 190: They reckon this geezer’s mobbed up with you-know-who from outta town.
2000		T. Fontana ‘A Cock and Balls Story’ Oz ser. 4 ep. 1 [TV script] Not every Italian-American is mobbed up.
2010		(con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 18: Last thing NYPD needs now is a film of one of its own shaking down a mobbed-up bar.
2017		D. Winslow The Force [ebook] No one jacks with mobbed up guys.

2. connected with or run by organized crime.

1973		P. Maas Serpico 222: The informant said that the person he had in mind was ‘heavy,’ an Italian who was ‘mobbed up.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 20: He was mobbed up with the Pleasant Avenue outfit.
1991		B. McCarthy 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’ .
2003		N. Green Angel of Montague Street (2004) 120: My mother’s father was the guy that was really mobbed up [...] Domenic Scalia.
2019		D. Winslow Border [ebook] Staten Island, which is as mobbed up as it is copped up.
2024		C. Stella Joey Piss Pot 231: [H]e parked outside a mobbed-up restaurant in Bay Ridge.

mob out (v.)

(US Und.) to murder on the instructions of a criminal gang.

1930		R. Whitfield Green Ice (1988) 55: Cherulli had it coming and was mobbed out.
1931		R. Whitfield ‘About Kid Deth’ in Penzler Pulp Fiction (2007) 288: What did you mob out Lou Rands for?

mob up (v.) (US Und.)

1. to join a gang.

1924		D. Hammett ‘The Golden Horseshoe’ in Continental Op (1975) 49: He couldn’t tell me where Ashcraft had lived [...] or who he had mobbed up with.
1950		Goldin 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.
1972		G.V. Higgins Friends of Eddie Coyle 59: I got a line that the brothers’re mobbing up.

2. to collect in a gang.

1998		K. Sampson Awaydays 43: Most of The pack start to mob up behind the kiosk.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 28: [They] had all mobbed up in front of the stage.
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 14: Some boys mob up and start chuckin stanes at the polis.

3. to ally oneself with.

1926		D. Hammett ‘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.
1930		G. Milburn ‘The Boomer’s Blues’ in Hobo’s Hornbook 242: Mob up and flop down around me, / Punch wind with an old-time ’bo.

mob v.1

In phrases

mob v.¹