hob
hob Lexical Profile
hob Game Scores & Validity
• noun
British The flat top surface of a kitchen cooker or stove containing the heating elements or burners, or a separate flat appliance fitted into a worktop for cooking.
"She left a pan of soup simmering gently on the gas hob while she prepared the salad."
A flat metal shelf or projection at the side or back of an open fireplace, used for keeping pans or kettles warm.
"A heavy iron kettle sat steaming on the fireplace hob throughout the winter evening."
In English folklore, a household sprite, elf, or mischievous goblin, also invoked in the idiom 'to play hob' meaning to cause mischief or trouble.
"Country tales often warned that an offended hob would curdle the milk and tangle the horses' manes overnight."
A hardened, fluted steel cutting tool used in machining to cut the teeth of gears, splines, or sprockets.
"The machinist mounted a new rotary hob onto the milling machine to cut the precision spur gears."
An adult male ferret.
"The gamekeeper kept two jills and a large albino hob in the outdoor hutch."
• verb
To cut the teeth of a gear wheel or spline using a rotary cutting tool (a hob).
"The factory floor uses automated machinery to hob hundreds of transmission gears every hour."
• Rhymes for hob
Word Origin & Etymology
The folklore sense derives from Middle English 'Hobbe', a familiar rhyming pet form of the given name Robert (like 'Rob'), which came to be applied to rustic country fellows and household sprites such as Robin Goodfellow. The fireplace and cooking surface sense emerged in the 16th century, likely as a transferred use of the same word or as a variant of 'hub'.