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lob

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lob¹

  • /lɒb/ Canada, Northern England, UK
  • /lɔb/ Australia, British, Scotland
  • /lɑb/ US
  • /lɒb/ New Zealand
  • [lɔ̟b] ~ [lɞ̠b] New Zealand

Rhymes with -ɒp

Where it comes from

First attested late 16th c. in the sense "allow or cause to dangle, hang," from sense 2.

verb lobs · lobbing · lobbed

  1. transitive To throw or hit a ball into the air in a high arc. The guard lobbed a pass just over the defender.
  2. colloquial, transitive To throw. In the months leading up to the election, government representatives took up a cybercrime case against Thanathorn for criticising the government on a Facebook Live video... They also lobbed more legal cases at his party for allegedly spreading false information.

    Similar: fling, hurl, bung, cast, chuck, chunk, cook, dash, dump, feck, jerk, heave

  3. colloquial, transitive To put, place. Lob the bacon in the pot.

    Similar: lay, lay down, put down, set down, deposit

  4. transitive To hit, kick, or throw a ball over another player in a game. Wigan took the lead when Hugo Rodallega lobbed David Stockdale from close range having earlier headed against the post.
  5. obsolete, transitive To let fall heavily or lazily. And their poor jades / Lob down their heads.
  6. Australia, informal, intransitive To reach or arrive at (a place). So with great trepidation we lobbed at the theatre and were escorted to our seats[.]

noun lobs

  1. A pass or stroke which arcs high into the air. The guard launched a desperate lob over the outstretched arms of the defender.

lob²

  • /lɒb/ Canada, Northern England, UK
  • /lɔb/ Australia, British, Scotland
  • /lɑb/ US
  • /lɒb/ New Zealand
  • [lɔ̟b] ~ [lɞ̠b] New Zealand

Rhymes with -ɒp

Where it comes from

From Middle English lob (“a lazy lout, bundle of clothing”), from Old English *lobb, *lobbe word for lumpish or unwieldy things, from Proto-Germanic *lubbǭ (“that which hangs or dangles”), from Proto-Indo-European *lewbʰ-, *lep- (“to peel, skin”). Compare Danish lobbes (“bumpkin, clown”), Old English loppe (“spider”) (in the sense of something that hangs or dangles). Possibly influenced or borrowed through Welsh llob (“lump”).

noun lobs

  1. obsolete A country bumpkin; a yokel. Farewell, thou lob of spirits; I'll be gone: Our queen and all her elves come here anon.

    Similar: bogger, bogtrotter, boor, bucolic, bydlo, culchie, carl, churl, corncob, cornhusker, country bumpkin, country cousin

  2. A lump.
  3. dialectal A nugget (of gold); (hence), a quantity of money; a haul; booty. And, moreover, I had no sooner set my eyes on the keys, than I remembered where there was a lob of money lying in Purcell's safe, that I —
  4. A clumsy person.
  5. The person who comes last in a race.
  6. A lob-worm.

lob³

  • /lɒb/ Canada, Northern England, UK
  • /lɔb/ Australia, British, Scotland
  • /lɑb/ US
  • /lɒb/ New Zealand
  • [lɔ̟b] ~ [lɞ̠b] New Zealand

Rhymes with -ɒp

Where it comes from

From Middle English lob (“pollock”), cognate with Middle Dutch and Middle Low German lobbe (“a type of small plump or stocky fish, cod”), Danish lubbe, from Old Norse lubba, ultimately from sense 2 in the sense of "clumsy, heavily or lumpily hanging."

noun lobs

  1. A fish, the European pollock.

lob⁴

  • /lɒb/ Canada, Northern England, UK
  • /lɔb/ Australia, British, Scotland
  • /lɑb/ US
  • /lɒb/ New Zealand
  • [lɔ̟b] ~ [lɞ̠b] New Zealand

Rhymes with -ɒp

Where it comes from

Blend of long + bob.

noun lobs

  1. A long bob haircut.

lob⁵

  • /lɒb/ Canada, Northern England, UK
  • /lɔb/ Australia, British, Scotland
  • /lɑb/ US
  • /lɒb/ New Zealand
  • [lɔ̟b] ~ [lɞ̠b] New Zealand

Rhymes with -ɒp

noun the lob

  1. UK, obsolete, slang A form of fraud in which a person asks for change in a shop, palms some of the coins, and tells the shopkeeper that he has not given them enough. Some are acute for the Lob; which is, going into a Shop to have a Guinea or Pistole chang'd, and the Change being given, the bringer of the Gold telling it over, Palms Two or Three Shillings, then returning the Money, says there wants so much, which the Shop-keeper telling over again, and finding sh

Lob⁶

proper noun Lobs

  1. A surname.

LOB⁷

noun LOBs

  1. abbreviation, countable, uncountable Abbreviation of large object
  2. abbreviation, countable, initialism, uncountable Initialism of line of business
  3. abbreviation, countable, initialism, uncountable Initialism of limit order book, an order book of limit orders.
  4. abbreviation, countable, initialism, uncountable Initialism of live on board (i.e. liveaboard)

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: lobate, compound, toss, lop, business, dea, eaw, praise, dfa, arc, mae, loeb, balloon, flight, loft, chop

Translations

Every language

verb to throw or hit a ball high into the air

Françaislancer haut, lancer en chandelle, lobber, faire un lob
Deutschlupfen, lobben
Italianotirare un pallonetto
Românăloba

noun high-arcing pass or stroke

Españolglobo
Françaislob
DeutschLob
Italianopallonetto
Русскийсвеча sveča

noun database large object

FrançaisLOB

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Cite this
MLA

"lob." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/lob. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

lob. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/lob

Chicago

"lob." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/lob.

BibTeX
@misc{lob_2026,
  title = {lob},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/lob},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}