hob

plural hobs

1. A kind of cutting tool, used to cut the teeth of a gear.
2. historicalThe flat projection or iron shelf at the side of a fire grate, where things are put to be kept warm.

   They went into a dingy room lined with books and littered with papers, where there was a blazing fire. A kettle steamed upon the hob, and in the midst of the wreck of papers a table shone, with plenty of wine upon it, and brandy, and rum, and sugar, and lemons.

   1898, Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, Book the Second, Chapter V (The Jackal)

3. CommonwealthIrelandUKThe top cooking surface on a cooker. It typically comprises several cooking elements (often four), usually called rings.

   And the first sound in the house was the bang, bang of the poker against the raker, as Morel smashed the remainder of the coal to make the kettle, which was filled and left on the hob, finally boil.

   1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter 2, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC

   Synonyms: cooktop, stovetop, range

4. A rounded peg used as a target in several games, especially in quoits.
5. A male ferret.

   Synonyms: hob-ferret

6. The hub of a wheel.

   August 31 1776, George Washington, letter to the President of Congress the wheels of the carriages sinking up to the hobs rendered it impossible for our whole force to drag them.

present singular third person hobs · participle present hobbing · participle past hobbed · past hobbed

1. transitiveTo create (a gear) by cutting with a hob.
2. intransitiveTo engage in the process of cutting gears with a hob.

plural hobs

1. obsoleteA fairy; a sprite; an elf; a bogey.

   From elves, hobs, and fairies, […] Defend us, good Heaven!

   1610–1616, John Fletcher, “Monsieur Thomas. A Comedy.”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, Act IV, scene vi

2. obsoleteA countryman; a rustic or yokel.

   More fitter for the Country Hobs.

   1682, Langley Curtis, New News from Bedlam

   Synonyms: bogger, bogtrotter, boor, bucolic, bydlo, culchie, carl, churl

1. obsoleteA diminutive of the male given names Robert and Robin.
2. archaicA nickname for Robin Goodfellow, Puck; (later) the devil
3. A surname originating as a patronymic.