overwordExplorer
ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

cob.

A corncob.

3 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/kɑb/General-American/kɒb/Received-Pronunciation
  1. A corncob.

    countable · uncountable
  2. The seed-bearing head of a plant.

    countable · uncountable
  3. Clipping of cobnut.

    abbreviation · alt-of · clipping · countable · uncountable
  4. A male swan.

    countable · uncountable
  5. A gull, especially the black-backed gull (Larus marinus); also spelled cobb.

    East-Anglia · countable · uncountable
  6. A lump or piece of anything, usually of a somewhat large size, as of coal, stone, or excrement.

    countable · uncountable
  7. A round, often crusty roll or loaf of bread.

    Midlands · countable · uncountable
  8. A building material consisting of clay, sand, straw, water, and earth, similar to adobe; also called cobb, rammed earth or pisé.

    uncountable
  9. A horse having a stout body and short legs.

    countable · uncountable
  10. Any of the gold and silver coins that were minted in the Spanish Empire and valued in reales or escudos, such as the piece of eight—especially those which were crudely struck and irregularly shaped.

    countable · uncountable
  11. One who is eminent, great, large, or rich.

    countable · obsolete · uncountable
  12. A spider (cf. cobweb).

    countable · uncountable
  13. A small fish, the miller's thumb.

    countable · uncountable
  14. A large fish, especially the kabeljou (variant spelling of kob).

    countable · uncountable
  15. The head of a herring.

    countable · obsolete · uncountable
  16. A tower or small castle on top of a hill.

    countable · obsolete · uncountable
  17. A thresher.

    countable · obsolete · uncountable
  18. A cylinder with pins in it, encoding music to be played back mechanically by a barrel organ.

    countable · historical · uncountable
  19. A person of mixed black and white ancestry, especially a griffe; a mulatto.

    countable · dated · historical · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Of uncertain origin. The word has many disparate senses, which are likely of diverse origin. The specifics of these origins have long been debated, as has the question of which senses arise from which origins. At least the swan sense originated in Middle English cobbe (“male swan; gang leader; bully”). Some other senses likely originated as a variant of cop (“head, top, peak, summit”). In other senses, the word may be related to cub, itself of obscure origin but possibly from Old Norse kobbi (“seal”). However, many alternative etymologies have been proposed to account for some or all senses of cob; various sources have related it, for example, to English cot (“cottage”), Welsh cob (“top, tuft”), or German Kübel (“large container”). All these etymologies are disputed, and the exact origins of cob cannot be known with any certainty.

verb/kɑb/General-American/kɒb/Received-Pronunciation
  1. To construct using mud blocks or to seal a wall using mud or an artificial equivalent.

  2. To have the heads mature into corncobs.

  3. To remove the kernels from a corncob.

  4. To thresh.

  5. To break up ground with a hoe.

Where this word comes from

Of uncertain origin. The word has many disparate senses, which are likely of diverse origin. The specifics of these origins have long been debated, as has the question of which senses arise from which origins. At least the swan sense originated in Middle English cobbe (“male swan; gang leader; bully”). Some other senses likely originated as a variant of cop (“head, top, peak, summit”). In other senses, the word may be related to cub, itself of obscure origin but possibly from Old Norse kobbi (“seal”). However, many alternative etymologies have been proposed to account for some or all senses of cob; various sources have related it, for example, to English cot (“cottage”), Welsh cob (“top, tuft”), or German Kübel (“large container”). All these etymologies are disputed, and the exact origins of cob cannot be known with any certainty.

verb/kɑb/General-American/kɒb/Received-Pronunciation
  1. To beat with a flat instrument; to paddle.

  2. To throw, chuck, lob.

    Northern-UK · colloquial
  3. To chip off unwanted pieces of stone, so as to form a desired shape or improve the quality of mineral ore.

Where this word comes from

Uncertain. Possibly onomatopoeic, but it has also been suggested that the word could be a continuation of Middle English cobbe (“fight”), a borrowing of Welsh cob (“blow”), or a cognate of Icelandic kubba (“chop”).

noun/kɑb/General-American/kɒb/Received-Pronunciation
  1. A punishment consisting of blows inflicted on the buttocks with a strap or a flat piece of wood.

Where this word comes from

Uncertain. Possibly onomatopoeic, but it has also been suggested that the word could be a continuation of Middle English cobbe (“fight”), a borrowing of Welsh cob (“blow”), or a cognate of Icelandic kubba (“chop”).

verb/kɑb/General-American/kɒb/Received-Pronunciation
  1. Of an animal: to nibble at their skin with their front teeth.

Where this word comes from

Uncertain likely from resemblance to the action of eating corn off a cob.

noun/kɑb/General-American/kɒb/Received-Pronunciation
  1. Abbreviation of cobble.

    abbreviation · alt-of
  2. Alternative form of COB.

    alt-of · alternative
FROM WORD TO NAME

Try it on your idea.

cob has 3 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.

cob studiocob workshello, cob

These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.

Explore the name generator

A word with a source.

Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.