hob

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A shelf or projection at the back or side of a fireplace, used for keeping food or utensils warm.
2. n. A tool used for cutting the teeth of machine parts, as of a gearwheel.
3. n. Chiefly British A hobgoblin, sprite, or elf.
4. n. Mischievous behavior.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A round stick, stake, or pin used as a mark to throw at in certain games, as in quoits or the game called hob.
2. n. A boys' game in which halfpence are set on the end of a round stick (the hob), at which something (as a stone) is pitched. when the hob is knocked down, all the halfpence that fall with their heads upward are the pitcher's, and the rest are set up again on the hob to be pitched at. [Eng.]
3. n. A hardened threaded steel mandrel for cutting a comb or chasing-tool.
4. n. The nave of a wheel: same as hub, 7.
5. n. A structure inserted in a fireplace to diminish its width, originally introduced when broad open fireplaces were first fitted with grates for the burning of coal; also, the level top of such a structure, forming a space upon which any thing can be set which it is desired to keep hot.
6. n. The shoe of a sledge.
7. n. A countryman; a rustic; an awkward, clownish fellow.
8. n. A sprite; an elf; a hobgoblin.
9. n. A milling-machine cutter used in forming the teeth of worm-gears. It is of the shape of the worm which is to mesh in the interdental spaces of the gear, and in use cuts out of the blank gear this space, leaving the teeth correctly formed.
10. n. A master die; a steel punch cut to a certain design, used for making coining-dies.

Wiktionary

1. n. obsolete A fairy; a sprite; an elf.
2. n. obsolete A countryman; a rustic or yokel.
3. n. A kind of cutting tool, used to cut the teeth of a gear.
4. n. obsolete The flat projection or iron shelf at the side of a fire grate, where things are put to be kept warm.
5. n. UK The top cooking surface on a cooker. It typically comprises several cooking elements (often four), also known as 'rings'.
6. n. A rounded peg used as a target in several games, especially in quoits
7. n. A male ferret.
8. v. transitive To create (a gear) by cutting with a hob.
9. v. intransitive To engage in the process of cutting gears with a hob.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The hub of a wheel. See Hub.
2. n. The flat projection or iron shelf at the side of a fire grate, where things are put to be kept warm.
3. n. (Mech.) A threaded and fluted hardened steel cutter, resembling a tap, used in a lathe for forming the teeth of screw chasers, worm wheels, etc.
4. n. A peg, pin, or mark used as a target in some games, as an iron pin in quoits; also, a game in which such a target is used.
5. n. obsolete A fairy; a sprite; an elf.
6. n. obsolete A countryman; a rustic; a clown.
7. n. (Zoöl.) The male ferret.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. (folklore) fairies that are somewhat mischievous
2. n. a hard steel edge tool used to cut gears
3. n. a shelf beside an open fire where something can be kept warm
4. v. cut with a hob
5. n. (folklore) a small grotesque supernatural creature that makes trouble for human beings