Etymology From Middle English gobbe (also Middle English gobet), from Old French gobet, gobe (“lump, mouthful”), from Transalpine Gaulish *gobbo- (“neb, muzzle”).
1
A lump of soft or sticky material.
1952, The Glass Industry, Volume 33, Ashlee Publishing Company, page 309, These inventors have discovered that gobs may be fed at widely spaced times without allowing the glass to flow during the interval but instead flushes out the chilled glass which accumulates during the dwell.
The story of “Strangers” is a cliché of well-to-do Manhattan: Husband makes gobs of money. Wife, despite her august educational pedigree, stays at home to raise the kids, relinquishing career and otherwise idling in the make-work realm of school boards and volunteering.2026 January 11, Alex Kuczynski, “Her Life Was an Old-Money Dream. It Collapsed in a Moment.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
Etymology From Middle English gobbe (also Middle English gobet), from Old French gobet, gobe (“lump, mouthful”), from Transalpine Gaulish *gobbo- (“neb, muzzle”).
1
To gather into a lump.
1997 March, William G. Tapply, How to Catch a Trout on a Sandwich, Field & Stream, page 60, I liked to gob up two or three worms on a snelled hook, pinch three or four split shot onto the leader, and plunk it into the dark water.
2
Ambitransitive, Slang To spit, especially to spit phlegm.
gob
noun
Etymology Probably from Irish gob, Scottish Gaelic gob (“beak, mouth”).
Etymology Back-formation from gobbing, or a specified use of Etymology 1, above.
1
Business, Mining To pack away waste material in order to support the walls of the mine.
gob
noun
Etymology Back-formation from gobbing, or a specified use of Etymology 1, above.
1
Business, Mining Waste material in old mine workings, goaf.
This consisted in wheeling gob back to the most distant part of the stope and filling up the sets right up to the roof.1930, Engineering and Mining Journal, volume 130, page 330:
Well I have taken the oath of allegiance for 4 years service anywhere in the world and am now a real 'gob' in the U. S. Navy.1918 October 22, Letter of Adlai Stevenson, quoted in John Bartlow Martin, Adlai Stevenson of Illinois: The Life of Adlai E. Stevenson (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1976), page 53
If it weren't for the Fleet I should scarcely be able to endure it. Gobs are always amusing, as you know.1928, Hart Crane, letter, 27 April
3 more examples
Full-cut, dashing "gob" slacks with back pocket.1937, Stella Blum, Everyday Fashion of the Thirties as pictured in Sears Catalogs, published 1986, page 94:
1944 November, Fitting the Gob to the Job, Popular Mechanics, page 18, For the first time in history, new warship crews are virtually “prefabricated” by modern methods of fitting the gob to the job.
1948 June, Fred B. Barton, Mending Broken Gobs, The Rotarian, page 22, Taking a safe average of 2,000 rehabilitated young gobs a year, that′s a total of 100,000 years of salvaged manhood, a target worth shooting at.
To save having to enter the locks at a crawl — not seamanlike in the strong cross-winds we often experienced ― I rigged a quarter-rope as described for stopping her, in addition to a gob-rope that I could immediately haul on to convert the quarter rope into a conventional stern line to hold her alongside after we had stopped.1996, John Mellor, Handling Troubles Afloat:
The towing point can be a bullnose up forward, a tow bitt aft, a staple, a towing hook, or a gob line.2009, Jeffrey Sleisinger, Shiphandling With Tugs: