nob

I. vb

British

to copulate. A working-class usage which became fashionable in the 1970s and early 1980s. It derives from the use of (k)nob to mean the penis, and as such is usually, but not invariably, used by and about men.

► 'We ate your food and nobbed your tarts.' (Jools Holland, of the pop group Squeeze, at the end of a tour of Venezue-la, 1980)

II. n

British

1.

the head. This now old-fashioned usage dates from the 17th century or earlier and is a form of archaic words which survive as 'napper', 'nape' and 'knob'.

2.

an aristocrat or VIP. Nob in this sense may derive from sense 1 (by way of the notion of a famous, prominent or swollen-headed personage), from the use of nob to designate the head on the Jack card in cribbage or, more straightforwardly, as a shortening of 'noble' or 'nobility'.

► A second battle between the nobs and the yobs was a slice of real life, as filmed by BBC2's new documentary series, "Enterprise Culture". A builder named Ken King has bought Avebury Manor.' (Kate Saunders, TV review, Evening Standard, 17 May 1989)

3.

the penis. In this sense the spelling knob is usually preferred.