[‘ /Eng. regional/ (Staffs. and Shropshire). A person who strikes or hits; spec. one formerly employed to strike inattentive members of a church congregation with a rod. Now hist.']
Pronunciation: Brit. /ˈnɒbl̩ə/, ˈnɒblə, U.S. /ˈnɑb(ə)lər/
Forms: see nobble v. and -er suffix1.
Etymology: < nobble v. + -er suffix1; in sense 2 with allusion to the intoxicating effect of the drink.
*I.* A person that hits; something used for hitting.
*1.* /Eng. regional/ (Staffs. and Shropshire). A person who strikes or hits; spec. one formerly employed to strike inattentive members of a church congregation with a rod. Now hist.
1744 in /Churchwardens’ Accts. Kinver/ (Staffs. Rec. Office: D1197/4/1), Paid..the Nobler 5 Quarters Salary To Midr. 1744 00:12:06.
1746 in /Burial Reg. Enville/ (Staffs. Rec. Office: D3578/1/6), Benjamin Whitton (the Nobler) was buried Decr. 6.
1841 C. H. Hartshorne /Salopia Antiqua/ 517 /Nobler/, a man whose duty it is to remind inattentive youths in church, of their misbehaviour, by ‘nobling’ them, or hitting them on the head with a wand.
1903 /Eng. Dial. Dict./ IV. 285/2 /Nobbler/, the church beadle who walks among the pews, and with a long wand nops upon the head of those whom he sees disposed to be drowsy, or otherwise inattentive to the service.
1985 /Econ. Hist. Rev./ *38* 298 In the eighteenth century a nobbler was employed in both Enville church and Kinver church to keep people awake.
*2.* /slang/ (chiefly Austral. and N.Z.). A small quantity of alcoholic drink. Also: a small glass or container for alcoholic drink.
1842 /Sydney Herald/ 19 May 2/7 A wag enquired whether Mr Tegg..was endeavouring to escape the licensing act by an admixture of a little salt and at the same time selling ‘nobblers’ instead of glasses.
1859 /Harper’s Mag./ May 812/2 The fall of the curtain was the signal for renewed pleasantries, explosions of Champagne, and demands for nobblers.
1862 A. Polehampton /Kangaroo Land/ 95 One fellow sold execrable rum at two shillings a nobbler, i.e. half a wine glass.
1908 D. Ferguson /Bush Life/(ed. 4) xxxv. 274 Nor did their thirst for ardent spirits appear to be in the least moderated by the price of the beverages..the good old colonial charge of one shilling per ‘nobbler’.
1949 D. M. Davin /Roads from Home/ 216 He..was pouring it into two nobblers he had fished out of the pocket.
1971 /Walkabout (Austral.)/ Nov. 73/1 Whisky costs around 300 rupiahs, or some 75 cents, for a generous nobbler.
†*3.* /Boxing/ /slang/. A blow to the head. Obs.
1848 /Sinks of London laid Open/ 117/1 Nobblers, blows, thumps.
1859 /Bell’s Life in London/ 3 July 7/1 Hall, who was hitting as his man was falling, again missed planting a nobbler.
†*4.* /slang/. A short stick used for killing fish. Cf. nobby n.2 /Obs./
1888 /Fortn. Rev./ May 630 His final struggles are shortly ended with a single tap of the ‘nobbler’.
*II.* A dishonest person.
†*5.* /slang/. A sharper’s decoy; a swindler; a pickpocket. Obs.
1839 H. Brandon /Dict. Flash or Cant Lang./ in W. A. Miles /Poverty, Mendicity & Crime/ 164/1 /Nobblers/, confederates of the thimble-men, who appear to play to induce others to do the same.
1876 J. Greenwood /Low-life Deeps/ 209 They’ll buy a truck load of slate and another of screenings and another of decent coal..and then they marry the three sorts together… They’re poor beggars, all of them nobblers, and never keep their own wagons.
1876 W. Green & C. Hindley /Life & Adventures Cheap Jack/ 261 A lot of people called ‘Nobblers’, who used to work the ‘thimble and pea rig’ and go ‘buzzing’, that is, picking pockets.
*6.* /colloq./
*a.* A person who tampers with a horse or greyhound before a race.
1854 G. J. Whyte-Melville /Gen. Bounce/ vii, Nobblers and noblemen—grooms and gentlemen—..apparently all layers and no takers.
1865 /Daily Tel./ 18 Apr. 3 It is to be hoped that the son of Orlando will speedily have the pen put through his name, and thereby mar the ‘little game’ of the ‘nobblers’.
1964 /Guardian/ 18 Apr. 6/3 To give a nobbler eighteen months for slipping a speedball in a greyhound’s breakfast.
1975 T. Fitzgeorge-Parker /Great Racehorse Trainers/ vi. 112 The nobblers got at him not once but twice and..they even attacked his legs to such good effect that he never ran again.
2001 /Times/ 24 July (Sports Daily section) i. 4/2 Plenty of people have done bad things in sport—chuckers, cloggers, bribe-takers, horse-nobblers, fixers,—without exciting the same degree of loathing.
*b.* /Brit./ A person who secures support by unfair or underhand methods, esp. one who bribes or intimidates a jury.
1982 /Times/ 2 Oct. 3/2 Judge Peter Slot ordered a 48-strong police guard on the jury..to deter would-be ‘nobblers’.
1987 /Independent/ 2 July 3/5 Nobblers were paid to intimidate jury members or witnesses in major court cases involving organised crime gangs.
1992 /London Rev. Bks./ 26 Mar. 13/2 When he appealed, the appeal board members..were nobbled by two MI5 officers. Fifteen years later..[he] got £30,000 compensation, but the nobblers of justice have not even been questioned.
1998 /Sunday Mirror/(Nexis) 7 June 25 (heading) Pagers plan to protect jurors from nobblers.
2001 /Times/ 11 Dec. i. 14/1 He is also..an appropriator of taxpayers’ money for party advantage and a nobbler of witnesses in parliamentary investigations.