transitive verb

1
chiefly British : to mend or patch coarsely
2
: repair, make
cobble shoes
3
: to make or put together roughly or hastily
often used with together or up
cobble together an agreement
cobble up a temporary solution

cobble

2 of 2

noun

1
2
cobbles plural, chiefly British : lump coal about the size of small cobblestones

Examples of cobble in a Sentence

Verb expensive leather shoes cobbled in Italy Noun a street paved with cobbles
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Verb
As Savage explained to Wired, his team found this vulnerability after spending years cobbling together 737 computer parts to effectively recreate the plane’s nervous system. Frank Landymore, Futurism, 13 Aug. 2026 Deep Cut, the ragtag band from previous Splatoon titles, has cobbled together a shantytown at sea, which serves as homebase. Mitch Wallace, Forbes.com, 6 Aug. 2026
Noun
It was underscored in the Tour’s final kilometers, a blur of hurt and lactic and guts over the Paris cobbles, swapping turns with Mathieu van der Poel towards a dream win on the Champs-Élysées. Jacob Whitehead, New York Times, 26 July 2026 Many stone walls started as crude piles of cobbles tossed out of the fields and onto the boundary lines. Matt Seaton, The Atlantic, 19 July 2026 See All Example Sentences for cobble

Word History

Etymology

Verb

Middle English coblen, perhaps back-formation from cobelere cobbler

First Known Use

Verb

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Noun

1600, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of cobble was in the 15th century

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Cobble.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cobble. Accessed 17 Aug. 2026.

Kids Definition

cobble

1 of 2 verb
: to make roughly or hastily
often used with together or up

cobble

2 of 2 noun
: a rounded stone larger than a pebble and smaller than a boulder

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