1890. Scotsman, 4 Aug. When a meeting takes place the men indulge in a protracted yarn and a draw of the pipe. The session involves a considerable amount of expectoration all round, whereby our friends come to be known as gobbies, and in process of time the term came to be applied to the ships engaged in the service. Ibid. There are no fewer than three other gobbie ships in the channel fleet, each of which carries a considerable number of coastguardsmen putting in their annual period of drill. Gobble (or Gobble up), verb. (vulgar).—To swallow hastily or greedily; hence (American) to seize, capture, or appropriate. Also gob: e.g., gob that! 1602. Dekker, Satiro-mastix, in wks. (1873) i. 233. They will come to gobble downe Plummes. 1728. Swift, Misc. Poems, in wks. (1824) xiv. 232. The time too precious now to waste, The supper gobbled up in haste. 1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, ch. cvi. Summoned in such a plaguy hurry from his dinner, which he had been fain to gobble up like a cannibal. 1846–48. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, vol. 1, ch. v. Mr. Jos. ... helped Rebecca to everything on the table, and himself gobbled and drank a great deal. 1860. Thackeray, Philip, ch. xiii. There was a wily old monkey who thrust the cat’s paw out, and proposed to gobble up the smoking prize. Gobble-prick, subs. (old).—A lecherous woman.—Grose. Gobbler, subs. (old).—1. A duck.—Harman. 2. (colloquial).—A turkey cock; a bubbly-jock (q.v.). Also Gobble-cock. 1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. 1851. Hooper, Widow Rugby’s Husband, etc., p. 94. Her face was as red as a gobbler’s snout. 3. (vulgar).—The mouth. For synonyms, see Potato-trap. 4. (colloquial).—A greedy eater. For synonyms, see Stodger. Gobbling, subs. (vulgar).—Gorging. 1846–48. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, ch. iii., vol. 1. His mouth was full of it, his face quite red with the delightful exercise of gobbling ‘Mother, it’s as good as my own curries in India.’ Go-between, subs. (old).—A pimp or bawd. Now an intermediary of any kind. 1596. Shakspeare, Merry Wives of Windsor, Act ii., sc. 2. Even as you came into me, her assistant, or go-between, parted from me. 1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Goblin, subs. (old).—A sovereign. For synonyms, see Canary. 1887. W. E. Henley, Villon’s Straight Tip. Your merry goblins soon stravag: Boose and the blowens cop the lot. Gob-box, subs. (common).—The mouth. [From gob, subs.] For synonyms, see Potato-trap. 1773. Forster, Goldsmith, Bk. IV., ch. xiv., p. 414 (5th ed.). Shuter protesting in his vehement odd way that ‘the boy could patter,’ and ‘use the gob-box as quick and smart as any of them.’ 1819. Scott, Bride of Lammermoor, ch. i. Your characters ... made too much use of the gob-box; they patter too much.