cobblers n.2
1. the testicles [= balls n. (1)].
![]() | Gilt Kid 178: They got us by the cobblers. | |
![]() | (con. 1920s) Burglar to the Nobility 11: I trounced the cobblers off him [...] This made me the leader of the Tiger Yard boys. | |
![]() | Saved Scene vi: mike: ’E picks ’em up at a ’undred yards. fred: It’s me magnetic cobblers. | |
![]() | Plays: 3 (1994) Scene iv: Get him in the cobblers, Edmund. | Morning After Optimism in|
![]() | Signs of Crime 178: Cobblers (awls) Testicles (balls). | |
![]() | Dict. of Invective (1991) 41: Cobblers are testicles or balls (from cobblers’ stalls or, perhaps, awls). | |
![]() | Dirty Cockney Rhy. Sl. |
2. rubbish, nonsense [= balls n. (4)].
![]() | Boss of Britain’s Underworld 153: He pleaded [...] that when he was running away he was escaping from the Billy Hill mob. That was a load of cobblers. | |
![]() | Look Long Upon a Monkey 95: Right load of cobblers, all that guff about religion. | |
![]() | Goodbye to The Hill (1966) 85: I talked all sorts of cobblers to her about weather and the like. | |
![]() | No More Sitting on the Old School Bench (1979) 60: Load of cobblers. | |
![]() | More Aus. Nicknames 22: If something is a load of old cobblers it’s really a lot of cobblers’ awls. | |
![]() | He Died with His Eyes Open 189: Her screamin and goin on like a maniac, let me go you bastards and all that cobblers. | |
![]() | Observer 11 July 32: His claim [...] is a load of old cobblers. | |
![]() | Call of the Weird (2006) 174: It was all cobblers. | |
![]() | Guardian 18 Dec. 38/5: Now I can pick and choose what I do. I’m not contractually obliged to do cobblers . | |
![]() | Independent 5 Oct. 7/2: No cobblers from him about glands or thyroid. |
In phrases
to lose one’s money.
![]() | Lowspeak 41: Cobblers – [...] 2. money: ‘I done me cobblers’ = ‘I’ve lost all my money’. |