corncob

See also: corn-cob

English

Alternative forms

• corn-cob
• corn cob

Etymology

From corn +‎ cob. The Internet slang sense emerged from a 2011 absurdist tweet by Weird Twitter personality dril in which a man furiously denies being owned as he transforms into a corncob.

Pronunciation

• (non-rhotic) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔːn.kɒb/
• (rhotic) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔɹn.kɒb/
  • (US) enPR: kôrnʹ-kŏb, IPA^(key): /ˈkɔɹn.kɑb/
• Hyphenation: corn‧cob

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

Corns on the cobs

corncob (plural corncobs)

1. The central cylindrical core of an ear of corn (maize) on which the kernels are attached in rows.
   • 1858, Oliver Wendell Holmes, “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table”, in The “Breakfast-Table” Series, George Routledge and Sons, published 1882, page 23:

     London is like a shelled corncob on the Derby day, and there is not a clerk who could raise the money to hire a saddle with an old hack under it that can sit down on his office-stool the next day without wincing.

   • 1922, “Corncob Seen as Source of New Industry”, in Henry Haven Windsor, editor, Popular Mechanics, volume XXXVIII, page 765:

     Six years of persistent research at the Bureau of Chemistry of the Department of Agriculture, has resulted in establishing the fact that a number of interesting and useful by-products can be derived from the humble corncob.

   • 2009, Chika Unigwe, On Black Sisters Street, Random House,, →ISBN, page 32:

     He bit into a corncob, and Chisom watched him munch with his mouth open, his jaws working the corn like a mini grinding machine.

2. (informal) A yokel.

   Synonyms: cornhusker, hayseed; see also Thesaurus:country bumpkin

Derived terms

• corncob engine
• corncob pipe

Translations

core of an ear of corn

• Albanian: kalli (sq) m, koçan (sq) m, rrumb (sq) m, kacarrum (sq) m, misërishte (sq) f
• Arabic: كُوز ذُرَة m (kūz ḏura), كُوز الذُرَة m (kūz al-ḏura)
• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Azerbaijani: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: кочан (bg) m (kočan)
• Catalan: panotxa
• Catawba: kus suk
• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: lapakko (fi)
• French: rafle (fr) f
• Galician: carozo (gl) m, carolo (gl) m, cañoto (gl) m
• Georgian: ტარო (ṭaro), სიმინდის ტარო (simindis ṭaro)
• German: Maisspindel f
• Hebrew: קֶלַח (he) m (qélaẖ)
• Hungarian: kukoricacső (hu), kukoricacsutka (hu)
• Icelandic: maískólfur m, kólfur (is) m
• Indonesian: tongkol jagung
• Irish: dias f
• Italian: pannocchia (it), tutolo (it) m
• Japanese: トウモロコシの芯 (とうもろこしのしん, tōmorokoshi no shin)
• Khmer: បណ្ដូលពោត (bɑndool poot)
• Kikuyu: mũcakwe class 3
• Macedonian: кочан m (kočan)
• Neapolitan: sponza f
• Norwegian: maiskolbe m
• Polish: kolba kukurydzy f, kaczan (pl) m
• Portuguese: sabugo (pt) m, espiga (pt) f, maçaroca (pt) f
• Quechua: q'urunta
• Romanian: știulete (ro)
• Russian: сте́ржень кукуру́зного поча́тка m (stérženʹ kukurúznovo počátka)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Latin: кли̑п m

  Latin: klȋp (sh) m

• Spanish: mazorca (es) m (Spain), olote (es) m (Méx.), coronta (es) f (Chile), marlo (es) m , panocha (es) f, tusa (es) f, zuro (es) m
• Swedish: majskolv (sv) c
• Tagalog: busal, busil
• Taos: kʼȍʼóna
• Thai: ซังข้าวโพด
• Turkish: koçan (tr), mısır koçanı
• Yucatec Maya: xi'im xikin

Verb

corncob (third-person singular simple present corncobs, present participle corncobbing, simple past and past participle corncobbed)

1. (intransitive, of turbines and rotor blades) To disintegrate by the blades becoming severed from the axis
2. (transitive, US, Internet slang) To defeat (someone) who then refuses to admit defeat.
   • 2017 July 18, Jeremy Gordon, “CNN’s Most Cynical Pundit Got Mercilessly Owned in a Reddit AMA”, in SPIN:

     “Do you enjoy being corncobbed?”

   • 2017 September 4, Amelia Tait, “The internet dictionary: what does it mean to be corncobbed?”, in The New Statesmen:

     Trump had lost but was denying that this was the case. He had been corncobbed.

   • 2021, Daniel Hill, "The Big Mad: Missed Connections", Riverfront Times, 24 March 2021 - 30 March 2021, page 11:

     Distracted cops, rude asteroids and the corncobbing of Andrew Koenig