Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also knobby) extremely smart or elegant, aristocratic.

1788		E. Picken Poems 178: The herds o’ mony a knabbie laird War trainin’ for the shambles .
1838		‘Alfred Crowquill’ Seymour’s Humourous Sketches (1866) 161: Lord F— was a dandy sportsman [...] described by Rory as a ‘walking-stick’ — slender, but very ‘knobby’.
1845		Bell’s Life in Sydney 25 Oct. 2/2: His bitch pack were puzzled on a cold scent, and he wished to mitigate the impatience of a nobby subscriber.
1847		A. Smith Natural History of the Gent 46: He thinketh it ‘nobby’ to throw at the sticks’.
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 59: If they cops you, it’s ‘over the vater to Charley’ you dances to, cause they doesn’t dance on nothing now [...] vot do you say to that, my nobby [swell] Cracksman?
1853		Dickens Bleak House (1991) 736: The nobbiest way of keeping it quiet.
1855		Delhi Sketch Bk 1 June 64/1: [cartoon caption] Why, that's a very nobby headdress you’ve got Jemmy.
1856		H. Mayhew Great World of London I 5: Besides he want a more nobby crib, as the one he hangs out in now is only fit for some pleb or cad.
1859		G.A. Sala Gaslight and Daylight 84: An announcement of the sale within of ‘Imperial black stuff, very nobby.’ [...] but the public found out that the mixture was not only very nobby, but very nasty.
1862		Morn. Post 18 Dec. 3/3: A nobby cracksman [...] cried ‘bravo’ and ‘hencore’.
1862		Cork Examiner 28 Mar. 4/3: Chelmsford, a well-bred [...] dog, the property of a nobby lot .
1871		Elk Co. Advocate (Ridgway, PA) 30 Nov. 3/2: You bet the are something just knobby, Pete, just look at his fancy necktie.
1872		E. Perkins Saratoga in 1901 208: ‘Fred drives a “nobby” rig’.
1873		G.W. Hunt ‘Bom! Bom! Bom!’ 🎵 She had been courted by a bobby, / But gave him up for a chap more nobby.
1873		J. O’Connor Wanderings of a Vagabond 310: Why, blarst it, when I was a lad a prize-fighter wus a nobby cove; the swells wus his pals, an’ he’d blunt by the fist-fulls.
1883		‘Mark Twain’ Life on the Mississippi (1914) 390: ‘Undertaking?--why it’s the dead-surest business in Christendom, and the nobbiest.’.
1888		‘’Arry on Competitive Examination’ in Punch 1 Dec.. 253/2: Nepo— wot’s it? — sounds nobby, no doubt, but remember that there Board o’ Works.
1890		James Rolmaz ‘Where Did You Get That Hat?’ 🎵 Where did you get that hat? Where did you get that tile? / Isn’t it a nobby one, and just the proper style!
1892		A. Chevalier ‘The Coster’s Serenade’ 🎵 Seemed that the moke was saying ‘Do me proud;’ Mine is the nobbiest turn-out in the crowd.
1894		A. Morrison Tales of Mean Streets (1983) 163: That was a nobby caufin, mother.
1901		in L.A. Times 13 Apr. [advert] Nothing to equal them has yet appeared in any other store. Prices of Men’s Nobby Spring Suits.
1901		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 4 Sept. 3/3: A bookie with a westcut fat, / And heaps of gold and rings, / Can cut a nobby figure.
1908		A.N. Lyons Arthur’s 184: I looked, an’ there was a nobby ole ’ouse.
1910		D. Stewart Tragedy of White House in Illus. Police News 13 Aug. 12/2: ‘That nobby building at Wormwood Scrubbs’.
1913		E.L. Warnock ‘Terms of Approbation and Eulogy’ in DN IV:i 21: knobby, nobby. Stylish, often applied to new hats. Smart, elegant, fashionable, good, capital. [...] ‘I’ve seen many knobby hats this spring.’.
1917		‘A-No. 1’ From Coast to Coast with Jack London 101: The valiant cop took to disguise. He laid aside his nobby uniform and donned the delapidated outfit he was now wearing.
1923		H.C. Witwer Fighting Blood 210: They’s four or five other dignified-looking old guys sitting out on the big glass-covered pazazza in nobby Tuxedos.
1926		O.O. McIntyre New York Day by Day 5 Feb. [synd. col.] He wore the latest creations of the knobby one-flight-ups and his cravats were of striking design.
1931		P. Stevenson Gospel According to St Luke’s 11: His pa was something pretty nobby in the Penn Railroad.
1942		‘The Spielers’ in Botkin Sidewalks of America (1954) 363: I’ll sing about some nobby girls I met the other night.
1989		T. Blacker Fixx 194: Endless evenings [...] at some nobby West End eatery.
2004		P. Howard PS, I Scored the Bridesmaids 243: She’s invited all her knobby mates over from golf and tennis.

2. showy, extravagant.

1808		in Jamieson Etym. Dict. Scot. Lang. n.p.: Nobby .
c.1810		broadside ballad: And all the coves said, what around did stan’, That he were a werry nobby dog’s meat man [F&H].
1844		C. Selby London by Night II i: Well, I fancy I shall do; my togs being in keeping with this nobby place, I can pass for a regular swell.
1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1862		Mayhew & Binny Criminal Prisons of London 5: He wants a more nobby crib, as the one he hangs out in now is only fit for some pleb or cad.
1874		J. Greenwood Wilds of London (1881) 292: Flash Jack, with [...] the latest and most ‘nobby’ invention in smoked pearl buttons adorning his fustian jacket.
1879		‘’Arry on Crutches’ in Punch 3 May 201/1: The gals eyed my nobby git up.
1880		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 25 Sept. 6/4: He was a real nobby little fellow. His clothes were the best that could be bought for twelve dollars a suit [...] and he wore enough jewelry to start a foundry on.
1908		A.N. Lyons Arthur’s 73: Sich a natty friend in a nobby coat.
1914		Sport (Adelaide) 24 July 4/2: Two kernuts who have not seen their names in ‘Sport’ yet [...] very knobby kids they are.
1915		G. Bronson-Howard God’s Man 355: He [...] looked upon M.M. Cagney and the Phoney Kid, attired in the very latest ‘nobby’ styles for men.
1929		S. Ornitz Haunch Paunch and Jowl 132: Pimps aflash with jewelry and nobby clothes.
1930		J.T. Farrell ‘Looking ’Em Over’ in Short Stories (1937) 38: Polo shirts, nobby ties.
1949		J.T. Farrell ‘Slouch’ in Amer. Dream Girl (1950) 97: He was always togged out in the nobbiest clothes [...] no one wore louder ties.

3. first-rate.

1842		Bell’s Penny Dispatch 27 Feb. 2/5: Mr. Prederi c Fi e ld, the swell jeweller and nobby chaunter.
1849		Sam Sly 2 June 4/3: For Jack and Dad, like first-rate bricks / Let fly some nobby blows and kicks.
1851		Bell’s Life in Sydney 25 Jan. 2/7: He dealt him such a nobby one with his staff that knocked him Into the fire-place,.
1877		Hartford Herald (KY) 3 Oct. 6/1: Miss Parker is some ‘punkins’ and can teach you nobby pieces.
1898		E. Pugh Tony Drum 73: ‘Buy, buy, buy, buy!’ shouted the butcher. ‘Ere’s a nobby bit o’ pork for you ladies!’.
1903		Truth (London) 18 June 1678/3: Slang terms: [...] fizzing, loud, nobby, no-flies, O.K., out-and-out, pick-me-up, pink, posted-up [etc] .

4. as the nobby, the smart thing.

1893		W.K. Post Harvard Stories 201: Just watch me do the nobby. (Smirks and waves his hat at ladies).
1908		C. Rook London Side-Lights 272: We pay sixpence if we take a seat in the body of the hall, and ninepence if we do the nobby and ascend to the balcony.

5. smart, clever.

1845		J. Lindridge Sixteen-String Jack 64: What a nobby out-an-out blade you must be to wake up the big wigs already.
1867		R. Whiteing Mr Sprouts, His Opinions 28: Jest as I was thinkin’ ’ow nobby I’d got over it, I see a site as give me quite a turn.
1882		Pall Mall Gaz. 4 May 2/2: ‘The omee [...] is humpish to-night,’ remarks the durrynacker to one, ‘The dony [...] is nobby,’ to another.
1905		Salt Lake Herald (UT) 26 Mar. 5/1: [from Kalgoorlie Sunday Sun] He’s a nobby man at magging [...] When he gets his tongue a-wagging.

6. arrogant.

1899

W.J. Kountz Billy Baxter’s Letters 21: He was nobby and boss. He was dropping his r’s like a Southerner, and you know how much of a Southerner Johnny is – Johnstown, Pa.

7. (US) wonderful.

1876		(con. c.1840) ‘Mark Twain’ Tom Sawyer 161: It’s nobby fun.
1905		Marvel III:56 18: That was nobby, Esmond!