gobful

English

Etymology

From gob +‎ -ful.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡɒbfʊl/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Noun

gobful (plural gobfuls or gobsful)

1. (chiefly UK, Ireland, slang) A mouthful.
   • 1926, Robert H. Davis, Irvin S. Cobb, Over My Left Shoulder, page 20:

     The Professor, in order fittingly to celebrate this golden moment, leaned back in his chair, lit the worst cigar ever sold west of the Mississippi River, and blew five large gobfuls of smoke into the face of Mr. Gilhoolie, directly above him.

   • 1989, Robert McLiam Wilson, Ripley Bogle, published 1998, page 121:

     One after another, gobfuls of mash are gobbled up.

   • 1992, Barry Dickins, Post Office Restaurant and Other Stories‎^[1], page 42:

     The reps sat in the only beam of midwinter afternoon sunlight, and they guzzled paté, crackers, gobsful of spring onions, lettuce done in varnish, they farted and burped and read business contracts to one another, […] .

   • 2002, John Scott, “Warra Warra”, in Peter Craven, editor, The Best Australian Stories 2002, page 311:

     They stood, mouths open and teeth bared, till the yolk-like film that seeped from their gums had slid to form small gobfuls, at which time, one after the other like a Gatling gun, they spat the slime at Pemmell′s face.

2. (UK, slang, by extension) A large portion or amount.
   • 1921, Charles David Isaacson, Face to Face with Great Musicians‎^[2], volume 2, page 197:

     “ […] But when you speak of love, I am no longer old. I am absolutely full of it. I have crammed great gobsful of it into my music.”

   • 2005, L.J. Adlington, The Diary of Pelly-D, unnumbered page:

     Three of them were full already – the diggers had scooped up great gobfuls of concrete and soil.

   • 2009, British House of Commons East Midlands Regional Select Committee, East Midlands Development Agency and the Regional Economic Strategy: First Report of Session 2008-09‎^[3], page 29:

     Mr Laxton: […] I once had a conversation with someone who was a permanent secretary — a top-notch civil servant in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs — who was in the business of handing out big gobfuls of money — billions here, there and everywhere.

3. (UK, Australia, slang) A blast of verbal abuse, usually considered justifiable.

   The neighbours were having a noisy party so I went and gave them a gobful.

   • 2007, Gideon Haigh, article in The Guardian, reprinted 2008, The Warne-Muralitharan Trophy: Marrige of Inconvenience, Inside Out: Writings on Cricket Culture, page 54,

     But his erstwhile colleague Jason Gillespie believes that the Sri Lankan probably expects it: ‘With Murali coming out he always cops a gobful in Australia and he′ll be expecting to cop that again. He might have to grin and bear it. […] ’

   • 2011, Barry Hall, Michael Cowley, Pulling No Punches, unnumbered page:

     I usually cop gobfuls from opposition fans, which is fair enough. They pay their money to come along and give it to the players they don′t like.

   • 2011, Niall Griffiths, Grits‎^[4], page 275:

     —-Cheeky southern blert, a sey an am about ter give im a real gobful but then a don′t bother. It woulden be werth it like.