Corb
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A basket, for example one used in coal mines, etc. archaic
"He said no more, but signed to me to lift a heavy wooden corb with an iron loop across it, and sunk in a little pit of earth, a yard or so from the mouth of the shaft. I raised it, and by his direction dropped it into the throat of the shaft, where it hung and shook from a great cross-beam laid at the level of the earth. A very stout thick rope was fastened to the handle of the corb, and ran across a pulley hanging from the centre of the beam, and thence out of sight in the nether places."
- 2 a corbel (ornament in a building). obsolete
- 3 A brown meagre (Sciaena umbra)
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"He said no more, but signed to me to lift a heavy wooden corb with an iron loop across it, and sunk in a little pit of earth, a yard or so from the mouth of the shaft. I raised it, and by his direction dropped it into the throat of the shaft, where it hung and shook from a great cross-beam laid at the level of the earth. A very stout thick rope was fastened to the handle of the corb, and ran across a pulley hanging from the centre of the beam, and thence out of sight in the nether places."
Etymology
From Latin corbis (“basket”).
Related phrases
More for "corb"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.