Noun: hobnob
| Singular | hobnob |
| Plural | hobnobs |
Sample Sentences
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With a hob-nob, and a merry go-round, / We'll pull in ere reason fail; / For the stoutest man in the kingdom found, / Must knock under to humming ale. [1823, Jon Bee [pseudonym; John Badcock], “Hob-nob”, in Slang. A Dictionary of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, the Pit, of Bon-ton, and the Varieties of Life, Forming the Completest and Most Authentic Lexicon Balatronicum hitherto Offered to the Notice of the Sporting World, …, London: Printed for T. Hughes, 35, Ludgate-Street, →OCLC, page 97:]
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A prologue of cherry bounce,—brandy,—preceded the entertainment, which was enlivened by hob-nobs and joyous toasts. [1870 May, “Irish Life”, in The Saint Pauls Magazine, volume VI, London: Strahan & Co., publishers, 56, Ludgate Hill, →OCLC, page 203:]
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The three friends had a hobnob outside the bar.
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The American people are largely under the influence of animal magnetism. Whether they are drawn to the levée of a Tom Thumb or to a hobnob with the Russians, the safety-valves of their joyous feelings are sure to be opened when the Stars and Stripes flaunt over their churches, public buildings, and private dwellings. [1865, [James Dawson Burn], “The Cities of America—New York”, in Three Years among the Working-classes in the United States during the War, London: Smith, Elder and Co., 65, Cornhill, →OCLC, page 117:]
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[T]he musical and dramatic critiques in our daily papers are dishonest, shameful, utterly unworthy, and a scandal to journalism and Ireland! Praise is lavishly dispensed because the system pays, […] 'A full house' on Saturday will procure a longer advertisement on Monday morning, another 'free pass' all round, and a hobnob perhaps with Signor, Senora, Herr Bugle, Madame, or Madamoiselle. [1873 February 1, “Waifs [from the Irish Builder]”, in The Musical World, volume 51, number 5, London: Published by Duncan Davison & Co., 244, Regent Street, →OCLC, page 69, column 2:]
Nouns inflected like hobnob
soldier's woundwort,
Nicosian,
whopper,
greypate,
tactile sign language,
chronotrope,
Rosie Lee,
dissentient,
photoinactivator,
sulphonediimine,
coastal waterfall,
residuary devise,
bituminization,
nitrosonaphthol,
smṛiti,
geosphere,
backscreen,
mensuralist,
flocculate,
flocculant, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
From hob and nob, hob or nob (“a phrase spoken when making a toast, possibly meaning ‘give and take’; to take turns toasting or buying rounds of drinks”) (archaic), from dialectal hab nab (“to have or have not, in the sense of an invitation to have a drink”), from Old English habban (“to have, possess”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kap- (“to grab, seize”)) + nabban (“to not have”) (from ne (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *né (“not”)) + habban). See: Old English Nouns '
habban'.