hob1
/hɒb
/- All kitchens are fitted with an oven, gas hob, cooker hood, fridge-freezer and combined washing machine and tumble drier.
- Appliances include a fitted hob and oven, an integrated fridge freezer and plumbing for a dishwasher.
- Inside the original rafters and walls are adorned by two splendid hobs over a fireplace.
- In Granny Kilpatrick's cookhouse stood a great black stove and all the pots sat around on the big white hobs.
- Once you have used a hob to cut a gear you will wonder why you would use anything else!
- If the hob is only one ring away, you receive one point.
Origin
Late 16th century (in sense 3): alteration of hub. sense 1, 'metal shelf by a fireplace', dates from the late 17th century.
hub from early 16th century:
Although hub is recorded from the early 16th century, it did not appear in any dictionary until the 19th. It seems to have been an English dialect term that first meant ‘hob’ (a variant spelling recorded from the late 16th century), which before the days of modern cookers was a surface behind or beside a fireplace used for heating pans, originally made of piled up clay. The sense ‘the central part of a wheel’ dates from the mid 17th century and was probably suggested by the shape of the original ‘hub’.
Rhymes
hob2
/hɒb/- Hobs are usually bigger than jills but the personalities vary little between the sexes.
- It has been the haunt of the mischievous, mythical hobs.
Phrases
play (or raise) hob
Origin
Late Middle English (in the sense 'country fellow'): pet form of Rob, short for Robin or Robert, often referring specifically to Robin Goodfellow.