Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to get hold of, to seize, to catch.

1827		J. Wight More Mornings in Bow St. 154: The constables came up, and endeavoured to keep the peace by nobbling the combatants.
1833		‘The Lively Kid’ in Rake’s Budget in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 88: [He] cried, ‘Good bye, you b—y trap,’ / To the spoon whose staff couldn’t nobble him.
1861		D. Cook Paul Foster’s Daughter I 197: I reckon I shall nobble on to a good five pounds.
1862		Morn. Post 18 Dec. 3/3: Buit the runners they nabbed him at the last / And in Newgate nobbled him hard and fast.
1874		‘Old Calabar’ Won in a Canter I 211: ‘But there's too much row about him, it's rather too ’ot to find him jist yet; they’d nobble us. Bill, in a brace of shakes’.
1881		‘’Arry on Woman Rights’ in Punch 2 Apr. 156/2: ’Tain’t no Woman’s Rightist, you bet, as will nobble / Yours faithfully, ’Arry.
1881		Newcastle Courant 2 Dec. 6/6: Detective Crowther [...] passed the two men who visibly shrunk at the sight of him. ‘Did yer see him wot has just gone past, Joe?’ ‘Yes, it’s the Nobbler, and we’ll have to keep our peepers open or he’ll nobble us’.
1888		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery Under Arms (1922) 69: We’re bound to be nobbled some day.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 5 Aug. 1/1: Instead of Reid ‘nobbling’ the Labor vote [...] he has simply opened their eyes.
1899		A. Binstead Houndsditch Day by Day 179: An ambitious and distinguished pilot to the upper blue had mysteriously ‘nobbled’ Moses.
1911		Gem 23 Sept. 10: I don’t suppose any prefect has followed us down here, but it’s just as well to be careful. It means being gated for a half-holiday at least if we’re nobbled.
1913		Truth (Sydney) 20 Apr. 10/3: It’s the feemales as they nobbles, / Does this holy josser push — / Workin'. on', their soft emotions / With their dam sky-scrapin’ gush.
1916		J. Buchan Greenmantle (1930) 186: Peter mumbled some foolishness about nobbling Angola for Germany and starting a revolution among the natives.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 316: Conspuez les Francais, says Lenehan, nobbling his beer.
1939		Franklin & Cusack Pioneers on Parade 94: Willie was too intoxicated by this display of affection to see that she also nobbled his drink.
1951		A. Garve Murder in Moscow (1994) 90: Cressey, whom I managed to nobble in the corridor.
1959		J. Gosling Ghost Squad 120: He spotted Burton and I in the taxi. We had to nobble him before he could give the alarm.
1960		L. Davidson Night of Wenceslas 207: ‘Was she in it—in this plot, too, the daughter?’ [...] ‘We’ve nobbled her, too’.
1988		Beano Special No. 4 n.p.: Erk! It’s Julius Caesar! We’re nobbled!
1996		J. Cameron It Was An Accident 118: [I] slunk out the airport while the vultures were nobbling some other geezer.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 237: I would never have known that he was out to nobble me up and steal my assets.

2. to discover.

1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1873		Sl. Dict.

3. to steal, to take illicitly.

1863		T. Taylor Ticket-Of-Leave Man Act II: If you will nobble a fellow’s bacca, you must take the consequences.
1877		Five Years’ Penal Servitude 243: Don’t yer know what a ‘stall’ is? Why, to be convenient, handylike, in the way to stow the ‘foulcher’ when she’s nobbled it.
1880		R. Rowe Picked Up in the Streets 123: Who’s to know the slops did’nt nobble the or’nges theirselves?
1886		‘’Arry’s Spring Thoughts’ in Punch 17 Apr. 185: Them as ’ave nobbled the ochre, or them as ’ave collared the Land.
1899		R. Whiteing No. 5 John Street 262: He was settin’ a grate, with a flunkey in the place all the time to see as he doesn’t nobble the stuff. My eye!
1940		M. Marples Public School Slang 8: Stealing or appropriating [...] nobble.

4. to cheat, to over-reach.

1854		Thackeray Newcomes I 244: I don’t know out of how much the reverend party has nobbled his poor old sister at Brighton.
1860		Cork Examiner 18 Jan. 4/6: He’ll be fly to the dodge, and we shan’t nobble him.
1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn).
1876		C. Hindley Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack 262: The ringleader of the ‘nobbling crew,’ [...] said. ‘No! we will see you and all your yokels d--- first!’.
1880		Henley & Stevenson Deacon Brodie I tab.III iii: We’ve nobbled him, Geordie!

5. to use illicit methods to obtain a person’s help, to swindle, to influence or to corrupt.

1856		Lord Clarendon Letter in H.R.C. Wellesley Paris Embassy (1928) 103: Morny ...seems to have talked with enthusiasm about the Empress-mother, and to have been quite nobbled by her .
1886		Fortnightly Rev. xxxix, 136: It was never certain whether he was going to nobble the Tories, or square the radicals [F&H].
1894		G.A. Sala London up to Date 67: The proposers and seconders of the various candidates have warily ranged themselves on guard [...] and remain there hour after hour, skilfully ‘nobbling’ members as they enter.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 11 Nov. 5/6: He at once inaugurated a scheme of booze and bamboozle for the purpose of nobbling the press.
1948		‘Josephine Tey’ Franchise Affair (1954) 83: [I]t [i.e. a newspaper story] offered [...] the impression that the police had been, if not ‘nobbled’, then at least lax, and that Right had not been Done.
1999		Guardian Guide 26 June–2 July 21: Nobbling some football teams.
2001		Indep. Rev. 8 Mar. 4: The Nambian government has been nobbled by its own staff [...] its own employees have defrauded it to the tune of £30,000.

6. (racing) to interfere with a horse in order to spoil its chance of victory, occas. ext. to human competitors.

1848		Era (London) 17 Sept. 5/2: Now, you’ve heerd a deal about this ’oss and his bein nobbled. All gammon.
1859		C.J. Lever Davenport Dunn 217: If it were so legs would have no existence, and all that classic vocabulary of ‘nobbling,’ ‘squaring,’ and so on, have no dictionary.
1868		Pall Mall Gazette 4 May n.p.: Buccaneer [...] was nobbled, i.e. maimed purposely [F&H].
1873		Sl. Dict. 238: In the racing world, to ‘nobble’ a horse, is to ‘get at,’ and lame or poison him.
1880		H. Smart Social Sinners II 129: From floating a fraud in the financial world, to nobbling a Derby favourite.
1891		N. Gould Double Event 141: [of a horse] ‘Dead lame,’ said Marston. ‘Nobbled, sure as a gun!’ said Ike.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 53: Nobble, in racing, means‘to get at’ and lame or poison a horse.
1899		‘Pot’ & ‘Swears’ Scarlet City 284: I am afraid that your friend [...] has, in turf slang, been nobbled.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 6 Oct. 13/3: What the Labor Cause wants in Parliament is the cold, critical friend, not the turbulent boon-companion. Champion, at any rate, doesn’t seem very susceptible to ‘nobbling’ on his sociable side – if he has a sociable side.
1904		Star 23 Mar. 4/2: [from Longman’s Mag.] They did not even stop at common ‘nobbling’ [...] their joint effort was an attempt to bribe one of my grooms.
1923		Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves 148: I think Steggles will try to nobble him before the race.
1932		‘William Hatfield’ Ginger Murdoch 49: Some dagoes used it to nobble a cup favourite by name of Socrates, I believe. Cyanide, they tell me is only scented mouthwash to it .
1956		‘Charles Raven’ Und. Nights 96: Witnesses were being nobbled well in advance.
1963		A. Baron Lowlife (2001) 73: I had seen horses nobbled.
1966		J. Holledge Great Aust. Gamble 130: Some of them played safe and nobbled the jockeys as well with the same concoction.
1979		F. Norman Too Many Crooks Spoil the Caper 33: Sticking the frighteners on jurors, nobbling judges and putting out contracts on the firm’s enemies.
1989		T. Blacker Fixx 89: I nobbled the nag.
1999		Observer 3 Oct. 31: The attempt at jury nobbling failed.
2000		Guardian 25 Apr. 2: Inquiry starts into ‘nobbled’ jury.

7. to ruin anything deliberately; esp. to impede a rival; to discover (a plot).

1883		Punch 2 June 264/1: There’s only once chance for you, and that is, to nobble the jockey! [F&H].
1890		Bulletin (Sydney) 26 July 9/2: He sprung into fame with that slashing Tomahawk, which, 22 years ago, lashed the Prince of Wales, especially with a cartoon of the ghost of George IV. The thing was nobbled, and Matt turned to artistic work in the States [...]. He missed a great career because of that nobbling.
1901		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ In Bad Company 84: So that’s the way they nobbled him.
1986		F. Taylor Auf Wiedersehen Pet Two 75: An’ if they [i.e. criminals] get nobbled, they bugger off to Spain.
1999		Guardian G2 2 July 4: The rest of the evening is now nobbled.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 289: They had him nobbled, wouldn’t let him near the inside of the arch, like they were workin in a team to get rid of him.
2019		C. Hammer Silver [ebook] [H]e’s done his best to nobble the story.

8. to kidnap.

1928

E. Waugh Decline and Fall 66: ‘What sort of job?’ I says. ‘Nobbling,’ he says, meaning kidnapping .

9. to recognize.

1934

P. Allingham Cheapjack 164: ’Struth, I thought you nobbled me.

10. (US) to obtain for oneself undeservedly.

1995

Nation 30 Oct. 500: Keyes became a protégé of Allan Bloom as a Cornell undergraduate before following Bloom to Harvard, where he nobbled a Ph.D [OED].