English Explanatory Dictionary

cobbler

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A person who repairs, and sometimes makes, shoes.
  2. A sheep left to the end to be sheared (for example, because its wool is filthy, or because it is difficult to catch).
  3. A person who cobbles (“to assemble or mend in an improvised or rough way”); a clumsy workman.
noun
  1. An (iced) alcoholic drink containing spirit or wine, with lemon juice and sugar.
noun
  1. A roadworker who lays cobbles.
noun
  1. The shiny, hard seed of the horse chestnut tree (Aesculus hippocastanum), especially when used in the game of the same name (sense 1.2); a conker, a horse chestnut.
  2. Synonym of conkers (“a game for two players in which the participants each have a horse-chestnut (known as a cobbler (sense 1.1) or conker) suspended from a length of string, and take turns to strike their opponent's conker with their own with the object of destroying the opponent's conker before their own is destroyed”).
noun
  1. Used as a name for various animals.
  2. Also estuary cobbler:
  3. The South Australian catfish (Cnidoglanis macrocephalus), a species of catfish native to Australia which has dorsal and pectoral fins bearing sharp, venomous spines.
  4. The soldier or South Australian cobbler (Gymnapistes marmoratus), a brown fish native to southern Australian estuaries which is not closely related to Cnidoglanis macrocephalus, but also has venemous spines on its dorsal and pectoral fins.
  5. Also river cobbler: basa (Pangasius bocourti), an edible species of shark catfish native to the Chao Phraya and Mekong river basins in Southeast Asia.
  6. Pangas catfish (Pangasius pangasius), an edible species of shark catfish native to Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, and Pakistan.
  7. Condica sutor, an owlet moth native to North America.
  8. A police officer.
noun
  1. Often preceded by a descriptive word as in apple cobbler, peach cobbler, etc.: a kind of pie, usually filled with fruit, originally having a crust at the base but nowadays generally lacking this and instead topped with a thick, cake-like pastry layer.
noun
  1. A testicle.
  2. Nonsense.
noun
  1. A person from Northamptonshire (traditionally a centre for shoemaking)

Pronunciation

/ˈkɒblə/ /ˈkɒbələ/ /ˈkɑblɚ/ En-us-cobbler.oga /ˈkɑbəlɚ/ En-us-cobbler.ogg

Word forms

cobbler cobblers cobler

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English cobeler, cobelere (“mender of shoes, cobbler”) [and other forms]; further origin unknown. The word appears to be derived from an early form of cobble (“to mend roughly, patch; (specifically) to mend shoes, especially roughly”) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns), but is attested much earlier than the verb which suggests that the verb may be a back-formation from cobbler. Sense 2 (“sheep left to the end to be sheared”) is a pun on cobbler’s last (“tool for shaping or preserving the shape of shoes”); while sense 3 (“clumsy workman”) is derived from cobble + -er: see above.

Synonyms

botcher chuckler lad of wax shoemender souter waxie waxy conkers 5-O alphabet barney beatsman bizzie bluebottle bluecoat blue heeler blue meanie bobby body snatcher bogey boy in blue bull bullyman buttons centenier charpering omi chazzer cobbler cop copper cozzer cracker crusher crowns dibble fed filth finest finger five-o flatfoot flatty fuzz garda gendarme glowie guardian of the peace harman harman-beck Inspector Knacker jack jackboot jake John Law John Q. Law Johnny Hopper lawman mee-maw monarch Mr Plod

Related words

cobblestone cobble-stone cobbling gentle craft cobblerfish dump cake

Derived words

Cobbler cobbler, keep to your last cobbler's cobblership cobbler's pegs cobbler's punch cobblery let the cobbler stick to his last the cobbler always wears the worst shoes the cobbler's children are the worst shod the cobbler's children go barefoot

Translations

Polish: plotos wielkogłowy
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