Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a large amount; esp. as gobs (of).

1823		‘A Provincial Dictionary For The Conveniance Of Emigrants’ Mississippi Intelligencer 1 May in DN IV:i 47: gob, s. Bulk. A large body.
1835		A.B. Longstreet Georgia Scenes (1848) 56: You nasty, good-for-nothing, snaggle-toothed gaub of fat, you.
1851		M. Reid Scalp-Hunters II 143: Four’s gobs for us! [...] Keep the rest.
1867		G.W. Harris Sut Lovingood’s Yarns 236: We hed gobs an’ lots in three weeks.
1875		M. Thompson Hoosier Mosaics 14: They seemed always to have gobs o’ money.
1884		E. Nye Baled Hay 246: We got a gob of American humor, yesterday.
1884		Henley & Stevenson Admiral Guinea III ii: Gold, ay, gobs of it.
1900		H. Garland Eagle’s Heart 99: He [...] cut out ‘a great gob of trouble’ for himself in Cheyenne County.
1905		A. Binstead Mop Fair 206: He having begun [...] to make ‘great gobs of the wherewith’.
1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 8 Dec. 14/4: He has great gobs of humor, i’ faith, and also oddsbodikins, in his mental and moral make-up.
1915		O.O. McIntyre Day By Day in New York 5 Mar [synd. col.] Take the penumoccoccus for example. He is the bug who peddles pneomonia [...] He has competition to meet in gobs.
1922		‘The Ark’ in T.W. Talley Negro Folk Rhymes 44: He had a sassy Mo’gan hoss / An’ gobs of big fat cattle.
1931		J.T. Farrell ‘Honey, We’ll Be Brave’ in Short Stories (1937) 128: I have gobs of faith in you.
1938		D. Runyon ‘Pick the Winner’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 322: This is the spot to bet a gob.
1944		D. Runyon Runyon à la Carte 45: It will cost a gob to ship old Em to Kentucky.
1954		‘Hal Ellson’ ‘Pretty Boy’ in Tell Them Nothing (1956) 123: I [...] dreamed she had gobs of them [i.e. reefers].
1961		F. Kohner Gidget Goes Hawaiian 48: I [...] gorged myself on a king-size Hawaiian breakfast complete with papaya and gobs of Puma jam.
1979		G. Swarthout Skeletons 32: Great gobs of space and sky.
1982		G.V. Higgins Patriot Game (1985) 55: Maybe he’ll throw one gob too many of his own shit at the wrong guard some night.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 160: The mortician had used gobs of cheap makeup to disguise the bloated scars.
1991		R. Doyle Van (1998) 566: He squeezed the bottle with both hands [...] gobs of ketchup rained down on the lads.