What does "cobbler" mean?
A person who repairs, and sometimes makes, shoes.
Cobbler
/ˈkɒblə/ noun, slang
noun, slang ·Common ·High school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: A person who repairs, and sometimes makes, shoes.
- Grammar: cobbler is listed as noun, slang.
- Nearest alternatives: shoemaker, booter, bootmaker, deep-dish pie.
- Useful contrasts: customer, engineer, main course.
- Usage evidence: A cobbler should stick to his last.
How to use "cobbler"
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- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "cobbler" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
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Source and review context
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Before you rely on this definition
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Compare nearby meanings
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Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "cobbler" is acting as noun, slang in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "shoemaker" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
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Final meaning check
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Definitions
Noun
- 1 A person who repairs, and sometimes makes, shoes.
"This honest Cobler has done what he might: / That Statesmen in their Shoes might walk upright. / But rotten Shoes of Spannish running-leather: / No Coblers skill, can stitch them strong together."
- 2 An (iced) alcoholic drink containing spirit or wine, with lemon juice and sugar. US
"[H]e produced a very large tumbler, piled up to the brim with little blocks of clear transparent ice, through which one or two thin slices of lemon, and a golden liquid of delicious appearance, appeared from the still depths below, to the loving eye of the spectator. […] "This wonderful invention, sir," said Mark, tenderly patting the empty glass, "is called a cobbler. Sherry cobbler when you name it long; cobbler, when you name it short.[…]""
- 3 A roadworker who lays cobbles.
- 4 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, dialectal
"["A]n' 'e was mad, an' so he snatched my cobbler an' run off with it. An' so I run after 'im, an' when I was gettin' hold of him, 'e dodged, an' it ripped 'is collar. But I got my cobbler—" He pulled from his pocket a black old horse-chestnut hanging on a string. This old cobbler had "cobbled"—hit and smashed—seventeen other cobblers on similar strings. So this boy was proud of his veteran."
- 5 Used as a name for various animals.; Also estuary cobbler:; The South Australian catfish (Cnidoglanis macrocephalus), a species of catfish native to Australia which has dorsal and pectoral fins bearing sharp, venomous spines. Australia
"Fished for cobblers in the evening. The warbler sings its night-song."
Show 15 more definitions
- 6 Often preceded by a descriptive word as in apple cobbler, peach cobbler, etc.: a kind of pie, usually filled with fruit, originally having a crust at the base but nowadays generally lacking this and instead topped with a thick, cake-like pastry layer. US
"I have selected a few dishes, and made out a little bill of fare, which will go home in the steamer that precedes me, and be hot when I arrive—as follows: […] Apple puffs, Southern style. Peach cobbler, Southern style. Peach pie. American mince pie."
- 7 A testicle. Cockney, in-plural, slang
- 8 A person from Northamptonshire (traditionally a centre for shoemaking)
- 9 a pie made of fruit with rich biscuit dough usually only on top of the fruit wordnet
- 10 A sheep left to the end to be sheared (for example, because its wool is filthy, or because it is difficult to catch). Australia, New-Zealand, slang
- 11 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, dialectal
- 12 Used as a name for various animals.; Also estuary cobbler:; The soldier or South Australian cobbler (Gymnapistes marmoratus), a brown fish native to southern Australian estuaries which is not closely related to Cnidoglanis macrocephalus, but also has venemous spines on its dorsal and pectoral fins. Australia
- 13 Nonsense. Cockney, figuratively, in-plural, slang
- 14 tall sweetened iced drink of wine or liquor with fruit wordnet
- 15 A person who cobbles (“to assemble or mend in an improvised or rough way”); a clumsy workman. obsolete
"Truely Sir, in reſpect of a fine Workman, / I am but as you would ſay, a Cobler."
- 16 Used as a name for various animals.; Also river cobbler: basa (Pangasius bocourti), an edible species of shark catfish native to the Chao Phraya and Mekong river basins in Southeast Asia. British
- 17 a person who makes or repairs shoes wordnet
- 18 Used as a name for various animals.; Pangas catfish (Pangasius pangasius), an edible species of shark catfish native to Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, and Pakistan. British
- 19 Used as a name for various animals.; Condica sutor, an owlet moth native to North America. US
- 20 A police officer. plural-normally, slang
"Look out: it’s the cobblers!"
Antonyms
Example
"A cobbler should stick to his last."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "cobbler"?
Common synonyms include: shoemaker, booter, bootmaker, deep-dish pie, doctor, drink.
How do you use "cobbler" in a sentence?
A cobbler should stick to his last.
How do you pronounce "cobbler"?
Pronounced /ˈkɒblə/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
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.
Etymology 2
Uncertain; it has been suggested that the word derives from cobbler’s punch (“warm drink made of beer with added spirit, sugar, and spices”), or because the drink patches up (“repairs; makes better”) the drinker.
Etymology 3
From cobble (“rounded stone used for paving roads, cobblestone”) + -er (occupational suffix). Cobble is from Late Middle English, from cobbe (“head or leader; gangleader; bully (?); male swan, cob; the head; something rounded or in the form of a lump”) + -le, -el (suffix forming diminutives). The further etymology of cobbe is uncertain; it is perhaps a variant of cop (“the top of something (a house, tower, mountain, tree, etc.); crown or top of the head; the head”), from Old English cop, copp (“summit, top; cup, vessel”), from Proto-Germanic *kuppaz (“round object, orb; knoll; hilltop, summit; crown or top of the head; head; skull; bowl; container, vessel”), from Proto-Indo-European *gup- (“round object; knoll”), from *gew- (“to bend, curve; an arch, vault”). However, this is doubted by the Oxford English Dictionary.
Etymology 4
Probably a variant of or related to cob, cobb (“stony fruit kernel; nut used in the game of conkers, conker; game of conkers”), perhaps from Middle English cobbe (“head or leader; gangleader; bully (?); male swan, cob; the head; something rounded or in the form of a lump”): see further at etymology 3.
Etymology 5
Origin unknown.
Etymology 6
Uncertain. First attested in 1859; various suggested etymologies include: * the top having the appearance of cobblestone rather than smooth rolled-out pastry; * Middle English cobeler, some type of wooden bowl, dish, or vessel (mentioned in a 1385 list of wooden vessels) * the dish having been cobbled together, as it is suggested it may have originated in the British colonies in America among settlers who lacked ingredients and tools to make make things like traditional suet pudding and so fit together pieces of other pastry-topping materials.
Etymology 7
From cobbler's awls as rhyming slang for balls.