gobbet

plural gobbets

1. A quantity of liquid, often in a sticky blotch.

   BOlvs in Engliſh is called a morſell. It is a medicine laxatiue, in forme & faſhion it is meanely whole, & it is ſwallowed by litle gobbets.

   1583, Philip Barrough [i.e., Philip Barrow], “Of Making Bolus”, in The Methode of Phisicke, Conteyning the Causes, Signes, and Cures of Inward Diseases in Mans Body from the Head to the Foote. […], London: […] Thomas Vautroullier […], →OCLC, book VI, page 288

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   He balked only when the priest scooped from the pot some of the medicine the woman had prepared and presented it for him to eat. The man shouted and Justin obediently opened his mouth to receive the sticky gobbet of paste.

   1962, Ian Brook, The Black List, page 48

2. A lump or chunk of something, especially of raw meat.

   This bottom was littered with great gobbets of flesh, most of which was in the last state of putridity.

   1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC

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   The gobbet – the largest piece of meat served in hash or soup – was about the size of a man's thumb.

   1875, John Cordy Jeaffreson, A Book about the Table, volume I, page 77

3. An extract of text, or image (especially a quotation), provided as a context for analysis, discussion, or translation in an examination.

   Gobbets are designed to assess your ability to comment critically upon source material, whether a text or an object. Each gobbet will have at least one specific point that should be addressed/analysed, so always consider why a particular passage/image has been chosen.

   2002 July 16, “Analysing Primary Sources”, in Cardiff University School of History and Archaeology, archived from the original on 13 Feb 2006

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   This new status for primary source material in schools was not a permeation down of the gobbet tradition from undergraduate courses. The gobbet functioned as a prompt to an exposition on the context of the extract — the period, the events, the people and ideas referred to in the gobbet.

   1990, Frances Blow, “Seeking patterns, making meanings: Using computerised sources in teaching history in secondary schools”, in Evan Mawdsley, editor, History and Computing, volume III

present singular third person gobbets · participle present gobbeting · participle past gobbeted · past gobbeted

1. transitiveTo splash with small quantities of liquid; to spatter.

   The bullets that hit him […] burst the bared head into splinters. Scalp, bones and brain gobbeted the jeep as the dead boy screwed and fell sideways.

   1972, Hugh Atkinson, The Most Savage Animal, page 242

2. transitiveTo swallow greedily; to swallow in gobbets.

   Or, did you ever see a dog with a marrowbone in his mouth[…] how prudently he gobbets it: with what affection he breaks it: and with what diligence he sucks it.

   1653, Thomas Urquhart, Gargantua and Pantagruel, translation of original by François Rabelais