quob

English

Alternative forms

• quab

Etymology

From Middle English quabbe, from Old English *cwabbe, from Proto-West Germanic *kwabbā (“soggy ground”). Compare Middle Low German quobbe (“swampy ground”), Middle High German quabbe (“marshy ground, unstable moorland”), whence Modern German Quabbe (“large bulge”). For the verb, compare German Low German quabbeln, quobbeln (“to tremble, vibrate”), German quabbeln (“to move back and forth as a squishy mass, wobble, jiggle”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kwɒb/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /kwɑb/
• Rhymes: -ɒb, -ɑb

Verb

quob (third-person singular simple present quobs, present participle quobbing, simple past and past participle quobbed)

1. (intransitive, dialectal, rare) To throb; to quiver.
   • 1944, Clark Ashton Smith, Lost Worlds:

     For the gray mass quobbed and quivered, and swelled perpetually

Noun

quob (plural quobs)

1. (dialectal) A marshy spot; bog, quagmire; quicksand.
2. (dialectal) A heap or mess; a bad condition.
3. (dialectal) An unfirm layer of fat.
4. (dialectal) A throb or palpitation.

Derived terms

• quobby
• quobmire

References

• “quob”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.