gob up

English

Verb

gob up (third-person singular simple present gobs up, present participle gobbing up, simple past and past participle gobbed up)

1. To gobble; to consume.
   • 1909, Émile Zola, Drink, page 199:

     Everyone at the table now had their eyes fixed on Lantier, who, quietly seated beside Coupeau, was gobbing up the last piece of Savoy cake, which he sopped in his glass of wine.

   • 2005, Amar Nath Prasad, Indian Writing in English: Critical Appraisals, →ISBN, page 151:

     We are again and again made aware of the cruel fact of the sharks in Indian gobbing up the share of the national wealth that legitimately belongs to the vast masses of the country.

   • 2013, Tim Winton, Lockie Leonard: Human Torpedo, →ISBN:

     Blob just sat there gobbing up her pumpkin.

2. To hawk up; To force phlegm or other viscous fluid up through the throat.
   • 2011, Aisleyne Horgan-Wallace, Aisleyne: Surviving Guns, Gangs and Glamour, →ISBN:

     She had a bottle of, well, bird spit (or phlegm, as she preferred to call it) each day. It was the stuff birds gob up as glue when they're making a nest, apparently, and it was supposed to be good for the skin.

   • 2012, Chris Walter, I Was a Punk Before You Were a Punk, →ISBN:

     This game so sickened one female guest that she ran outside and puked all over the steps, causing us to laugh uproariously and gob up another flurry of big slimy horkers (we later put an end to this revolting practice when we all ended up with the same nasty cold).

   • 2016, Keggie Carew, Dadland, →ISBN, page 236:

     ... loinclothed figures bang metal in the gloom, sparks flying from the bellows; a man gobs up a crimson splat of betel juice; a wreath of acrid smoke hangs over a dung fire.

3. To coat with a gooey substance.
   • 2000, Dan Heidt, Disposable Heroes, →ISBN, page 144:

     The manager tells us this is really bad, as he puts a red bandana over his face, and we gob up the Vicks gel under our noses.

   • 2008, Stephan Ray Swimmer, Changing of Seasons, →ISBN, page 60:

     It took longer to gob up the ammo but in Obadi's words it was “more satisfying”.

   • 2008, Glenn G. Thater, Harbinger of Doom, →ISBN, page 7:

     So gob up your ears with a slab of this stuff so your head'll be on straight, then start your telling.”

4. To add too many embellishments.
   • 1957, Rayburn's Ozark Guide - Issues 51-66, page 32:

     Wild game, fish, chicken, beef, pork (hawg meat) cooked right and seasoned with salt and pepper and not gobbed up with wild sauces, garlic, curry powder, kumquats, turffles, olive oil, prawns or drown'ed in wine!

   • 2001, Bookforum: The Book Review for Art and Culture:

     His prose is generous, unhurried, and far too tasteful to gob up the page with theory.

   • 2008 -, Marianne Gingher, Adventures in Pen Land: One Writer's Journey from Inklings to Ink, →ISBN:

     My eyes are gobbed up with glasses; my teeth are gobbed up with braces. Nobody can tell what I am beneath such a load of remediation.

   • 2013, J.N. Hyatt, More Baba, →ISBN:

     You never liked flashy,” said Amy. “I remember how exasperated you got when we went shopping at discounters. Exactly the color you wanted and at a bargain, but...” “All gobbed up with a screaming parrot or a flaming flamingo right on the front."

5. (mining) To pack or fill with waste material.
   • 1879, Great Britain Parliament House of Commons, Reports from Commissioners - Volume 18, page 24:

     Packers did the packing and stopping ; they were employed to pack up at nights. I cannot give you names, because we were changing every week. I think one man's name was William Abraham. They came in with the rubbish every night to gob up.

   • 1885, Samuel Franklin Emmons, George Ferdinand Becker, Statistics and Technology of the Precious Metals:

     There is no waste dump at the surface, and none of the contents of the lode as yet broken down have been so poor in silver as to be thrown away or used for gobbing up.

   • 1913, John Harger, Coal, and the prevention of explosions and fires in mines, page 161:

     Attempts have been made on several occasions to avoid the digging out by gobbing up the roads in the district and putting stoppings at intervals, the treatment being extended for 100 yards or more.

   • 2004, Martin R. Connop Price, Pembrokeshire: the forgotten coalfield, →ISBN:

     Wider pillars usually provided better security for stalls and headings and when an area was worked out they might be "robbed" of additional coal before the stalls were finally abandoned and packed up ("gobbed up") with waste.

6. To clog or become clogged.
   • 1881, American Iron and Steel Association -, The Bulletin of the American Iron and Steel Association:

     The moment the hearth of a furnace which is using these ores cools below the quality of the heat required to liquefy the cinder it chills against the walls, gobs up the hearth, and reduces the yield of the furnace.

   • 1993 April, Pondering in Portland, “Ask Camille Paglia”, in Spy, volume 7, number 6, page 25:

     Nothing gobs up the creative flow more than the image of a fat, lonely, middle-aged insurance salesman lying on his bed and pulling on his weenie while he listens to my words coming over the line

   • 2011, Upper Big Branch: The April 5, 2010 Explosion, →ISBN:

     “Them pumps were in bad shape, and I was trying to get them back up and running,” Farley said.12 Stanley explained that the pumps would “gob up” and “we'd have to disassemble them, take them apart.”

7. To form clumps.
   • 1988, Climbing - Issues 106-111, page 24:

     It is good to let the glue get nice and thick through many renewals, but if the glue gobs up unevenly, remove it with a scraper and hot air gun.

   • 2011, Aron Ralston, 127 Hours: Between a Rock and a Hard Place, →ISBN:

     The resulting goo gobs up around my molars, and I decide not to swallow it.

   • 2016, Christina Salway, Home Improvement Projects for the Busy & Broke, →ISBN:

     Spray paint is decidedly unforgiving when it comes to dust and grime—I swear it gobs up and highlights every freaking dust particle— so it's worth it to do a thorough wipe down before you start the spraypainting portion of this project.