Adjacent Words

nobble definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

v
1: deprive of by deceit; "He swindled me out of my inheritance"; "She defrauded the customers who trusted her"; "the cashier gypped me when he gave me too little change" [syn: victimize, swindle, rook, goldbrick, nobble, diddle, bunco, defraud, scam, mulct, gyp, gip, hornswoggle, short-change, con]
2: make off with belongings of others [syn: pilfer, cabbage, purloin, pinch, abstract, snarf, swipe, hook, sneak, filch, nobble, lift]
3: take away to an undisclosed location against their will and usually in order to extract a ransom; "The industrialist's son was kidnapped" [syn: kidnap, nobble, abduct, snatch]
4: disable by drugging; "nobble the race horses"

Merriam Webster's

transitive verb (nobbled; nobbling) Etymology: perhaps irregular frequentative of nab Date: 1847 1. British to incapacitate (a racehorse) especially by drugging 2. slang, British a. to win over to one's side b. steal c. swindle, cheat d. to get hold of ; catch • nobbler noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v.tr. Brit. sl. 1 tamper with (a racehorse) to prevent its winning. 2 get hold of (money etc.) dishonestly. 3 catch (a criminal). 4 secure the support of or weaken (a person) esp. by underhand means. 5 seize, grab. Etymology: prob. = dial. knobble, knubble knock, beat, f. KNOB

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(nobbles, nobbling, nobbled) 1. If someone nobbles an important group of people such as a committee, they offer them money or threaten them in order to make them do something. (BRIT INFORMAL) The trial was stopped before Christmas after allegations of attempts to nobble the jury... VERB: V n 2. If someone nobbles a racehorse, they deliberately harm it, often using drugs, in order to prevent it from winning a race. (BRIT INFORMAL) ...the drug used to nobble two horses at Doncaster. VERB: V n 3. If someone nobbles your plans or chances of succeeding, they prevent you from achieving what you want. (BRIT INFORMAL) His opportunity to re-establish himself had been nobbled by the manager's tactics. VERB: V n