Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

cobbler

/ˈkɑblɚ/

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: 2.82 in modern English

Syllables
cob-bler
IPA
/ˈkɑblɚ/
13
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A person who repairs, and sometimes makes, shoes.

noun

A sheep left to the end to be sheared (for example, because its wool is filthy, or because it is difficult to catch).

Australian usage; New Zealand usage; Slang

noun

A person who cobbles (“to assemble or mend in an improvised or rough way”); a clumsy workman.

Obsolete

noun

An (iced) alcoholic drink containing spirit or wine, with lemon juice and sugar.

American usage

noun

A roadworker who lays cobbles.

noun

The shiny, hard seed of the horse chestnut tree (Aesculus hippocastanum), especially when used in the game of the same name (sense 1.2); a conker, a horse chestnut.

British usage

noun

Synonym of conkers (“a game for two players in which the participants each have a horse-chestnut (known as a cobbler (sense 1.1) or conker) suspended from a length of string, and take turns to strike their opponent's conker with their own with the object of destroying the opponent's conker before their own is destroyed”).

British usage

noun

Used as a name for various animals.

Australian usage

Example Sentences

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English cobeler, cobelere (“mender of shoes, cobbler”) [and other forms]; further origin unknown. The word appears to be derived from an early form of cobble (“to mend roughly, patch; (specifically) to mend shoes, especially roughly”) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns), but is attested much earlier than the verb which suggests that the verb may be a back-formation from cobbler. Sense 2 (“sheep left to the end to be sheared”) is a pun on cobbler’s last (“tool for shaping or preserving the shape of shoes”); while sense 3 (“clumsy workman”) is derived from cobble + -er: see above.

Origin

Word Breakdown

Regional Pronunciation

  • American English: /ˈkɑblɚ/
  • British English: /ˈkɒblə/

Usage

Inflected Forms

Derived Forms

Phrases

Frequently Paired Words

Synonyms

Rhymes With

Questions

How do you pronounce cobbler?
The recorded pronunciation is /ˈkɑblɚ/.
What does cobbler mean?
A person who repairs, and sometimes makes, shoes.
Where does cobbler come from?
It is traced to Middle English.

How to pronounce cobbler

  1. Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “cobbler”.
  2. Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/ˈkɑblɚ/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
  3. Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “cobbler”.
  4. Repeat and practice — Say “cobbler” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.