nob n.2
1. a nobleman, a gentleman.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Tax and Axe n.p.: O that a good Nob / Had hold of Job. | |
| Lex. Balatronicum n.p.: Nob. A king. A man of rank. | |
| Adventures of Johnny Newcome III 144: An Admiral, and many Knobs, Who thought of coming back Nabobs. | |
| ‘Battle’ in Fancy I XVII 403: Boreas too [...] did took unwarrantable liberties with the nobs of the company, without making any distinction between Corinthian and Commoner, and many a hero’s topper was not replaced on his napper, without scampering a quarter of a mile or more for it. | |
| Eng. Spy I 255: Be unto him ever ready to promote his wishes [...] against dun or don – nob or big-wig – so may you never want a bumper of bishop. | |
| ‘The ‘Hell’ Birds’ in Tommarroo Songster in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) IV 332: We’re well received, where e’re we go — / The knobs all come a courting. | |
| Yellowplush Papers in Works III (1898) 263: My master said he’d introduce him to the Duke of Doncaster, and Heaven knows how many nobs more. | |
| ‘A New Song on the Birth of a Prince of Wales’ in Curiosities of Street Lit. (1871) 65: An old maid ran through the palace, which did the nobs surprise. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Boston Satirist (MA) 21 Oct. n.p.: Many a nob in vain had sought her, / Him full many a spicy one. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Satirist & Sporting Chron. (Sydney) 11 Mar. 2/3: That Lnob [sic] Mr C— / [...] / With his swell four-wheeled chay, / His liveries too, buff and green. | |
| Melbourne Punch 20 Nov. 3/2: Boss —Noun. A cove, a beak, a guvnor, a nob, an old ’un, a big-wig etc. | |
| ‘Sunday Trading Bill’ in Curiosities of Street Lit. (1871) 115: The nobs may call at the pastry shops. | |
| (con. 1840s–50s) London Labour and London Poor II 56/1: There’s not any public dog-fights [...] but there’s a good deal of it, I know, at the private houses of the nobs. | |
| Wilds of London (1881) 350: It ain’t like a district where nobs and swells lives. | |
![[Ind]](/static/img/flags/ind.png "India") | Lays of Ind (1905) 138: Show that you think he's the district nob, / And he'll lend you a hand, if he can. | |
| Robbery Under Arms (1922) 216: So George was hail-fellow-well-met with all the swells at the camp [...] all the nobs there were at the Turon. | |
| Long Odds I 41: ‘[T]hese nobs have a way with them,' replied John Bramton [...] ‘They would know me on the bench, but not off it’. | |
| Boys Of The Empire 24 Aug. 368: One For His Nobbs. | |
| [perf. Marie Lloyd] G’arn Away 🎵 Once a chap walked me out as was considered quite a nob. | |
| Aus. Sl. Dict. 53: Nob, [...] a person of high position. | |
| Spoilers 7: I’ve seen myself a size bigger ’n life, sittin’ wi’ the nobs an’ tits in Rotten Row. | |
| ‘Girl and the Habit’ in Strictly Business (1915) 238: She was expected to sell worthless articles to nobs and snobs at exorbitant prices. | |
| Good Companions 222: The nobs have arrived [...] They won’t come to tea, they’re too grand. | |
| Foveaux 224: If the ‘nobs’ on the Council thought the place ought to be pulled down, it must be worse than they thought. | |
| Phenomena in Crime 171: ‘Mug’ [...] would wander among the ‘nobs’. | |
| Come in Spinner (1960) 314: All he needed now was a few decent clothes [...] and he could go anywhere among the bloody nobs. | |
| Guntz 15: I was delivering to all the nobs around Mayfair. | |
| Sun. Times Mag. 12 Oct. 25: You can’t tell the little guys they’ve got to turn it in, when they see what the nobs are doing. | |
| Down and Out 162: All the big nobs stay here, you know. | |
| Déjàvu Act I: I’m the one the nobs would like to kill. | |
| Indep. on Sun. 23 Jan. 10: Most of the race-goers aren’t nobs. | |
| Silver [ebook] It’s like Nobb Hill without the nobs . |
2. (Aus.) an expert [from sense 1].
| Bell’s Life in London 23 Dec. 2/5: At Tom Belcher’s a meeting was held of the nobs of the Ring, who in fighting excell’d. | |
| ‘A Letter to the Front’ in Moods of Ginger Mick 85: So I tries to buck ’im up a bit; to go fer Abdul’s fez; / An’ I ain’t no nob at litrachure; but this is wot I sez. |
In derivatives
the elite.
| Guardian 11 Jan. 18: Scuffing his heels outside Stratford station with the rest of the New Labour nobbery. |
aristocratic; showy.
| , , | | Sl. Dict. |
| Sl. Dict. |
In phrases
to give oneself airs.
| Deacon Brodie II tab. IV viii: Don’t you get coming the nob over me, Mr. Deacon Brodie, or I’ll smash you. | |
| Card (1974) 63: I wasn’t going to have Fearns coming the duke over me! | |
| (con. 1830s–60s) All That Swagger 209: You see, old Rawson tries to come the nabob. |
(UK Und.) to pose as an aristocrat to defraud tradesmen.
| New and Improved Flash Dict. |
(Aus.) upper-class.
| Sun. Times (Perth) 7 Feb. 1/1: An extremely high-nob newspaper man of Perth has heard bad news from New Zealand. |
a judge.
| ‘House Breaker’s Song’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 122: Let nobs in the fur trade hold their jaw, / And let the jug be free. | |
| Sl. and Its Analogues. |
(UK Und.) to use brains rather than brawn to succeed in the world.
| Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 254: nob it: to act with such prudence and knowledge of the world, as to prosper and become independent without any labour or bodily exertion; this is termed nobbing it, or fighting nob work. To effect any purpose, or obtain any thing, by means of good judgment and sagacity, is called nobbing it for such a thing. | |
| Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue [as cit. 1812]. | |
| Emigrant Family I 194: The Welshman nobs it up well . |
the Houses of Parliament.
| Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. |