cob

noun

ˈkäb 

1

[perhaps short for cobswan lead swan] : a male swan

2

a

dialectal, England : a rounded mass, lump, or heap

b

: a mixture of unburned clay and straw used especially for constructing walls of small houses in England

3

: a crudely struck old Spanish coin of irregular shape

—often used before another noun

a cob dollar

4

: corncob sense 1

5

: a stocky short-legged riding horse

Examples of cob in a Sentence

She used a knife to cut the corn from the cob.

We had corn on the cob.

Recent Examples on the Web

Use the back of a large chef’s knife to scrape milk from corn cobs into bowl with kernels; discard cobs. —Marianne Williams, Southern Living, 17 July 2025

Cut the kernels from the corn cobs and put them in a bowl; refrigerate. —The New York Times News Service Syndicate, Denver Post, 16 July 2025

Unlike materials like cob, straw bale is adopted in the California residential building code. —Lila Seidman, Los Angeles Times, 28 June 2025

With a sharp knife, barely slice the tops of the kernels off into a bowl, then scrape the kernels' roots from the cob into the same bowl. —Kelly Brant, Arkansas Online, 1 July 2025

Word History

Etymology

Middle English cobbe leader of a group, head; probably akin to cub (young animal), Middle English kebbe old cow or sheep, Dutch dialect kabbe, kebbe piglet

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing cob

• corn on the cob
• Welsh cob

Rhymes for cob

• blob
• bob
• daub
• fob
• glob
• gob
• hob
• job
• knob
• lob
• mob
• rob

Kids Definition

cob

noun

ˈkäb 

1

: a male swan

2

: corncob

3

: a short-legged stocky horse