slobber

From Middle English sloberen, borrowed from Middle Dutch slobberen (> Modern Dutch slobberen (“to slobber”)), related to West Frisian slobberje (“to slurp”), German Low German slubbern (“to slobber”). Doublet of slabber and slaver. Compare also German schlabbern (“to slobber”). Not related to English slob.

• IPA^(key): /ˈslɒbə(ɹ)/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒbə(ɹ)

slobber (countable and uncountable, plural slobbers)

1. Liquid material, generally saliva, that dribbles or drools outward and downward from the mouth.

   There was dried slobber on his coat lapel.

2. (uncommon) A dribbly shower (of rain).
   • 1891, Belgravia: A London Magazine, page 22:

     I looked about me in the slobber of rain, and found that I was in the middle of an irregular quadrangle, three sides of which were bordered by buildings of five or six storeys, newish, and furnished with small, not inelegant windows.

   • 2014 March 27, Alan Garner, Thursbitch: From the author of the 2022 Booker longlisted Treacle Walker, Random House, →ISBN, page 93:

     "Yon good slobber of rain fixed us nicely."

   • 1963, Harry P. Heseltine, Australian Idiom: An Anthology of Contemporary Prose and Poetry, page 171:

     […] treading through the slobber of rain that evoked a past like morsels of unsavoury eternity, slid the motor-car showily tossing up wings of water. 'Hoi, Mag!' It was her fiancé, ruddy with twenty-five-year-old enthusiasm and grinning like an […]

3. (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) Muddy or marshy land; mire.
4. (dated) A jellyfish.
5. Attributive form of slobbers; causing or relating to the veterinary medical condition slobbers.

   slobber grass, slobber hay

slobber (third-person singular simple present slobbers, present participle slobbering, simple past and past participle slobbered)

1. To allow saliva or liquid to run from one's mouth.

   Synonyms: drool, slaver

   All babies slobber.

2. (of spit, rain, etc) To fall thickly (viscously), like or as saliva.
   • 1980, Elaine Suss, A Money Marriage: A Novel, →ISBN:

     […] rain slobbered over New York. Fifty-eighth Street's construction debris ran in murky rivulets. Martin, Bagel and I walked single file on wood planks through Avon's rough board tunnel.

   • 1992, LaJoyce Martin, The Other Side of Jordan, →ISBN:

     […] rain slobbered over the window sills in rivers, the cloudburst making Jordan's departure impossible.

   • 2005, The Georgia Review:

     All day rain slobbered through the streets, across lawns, into my grandfather's basement. He had an irrigation pump and three garden hoses, but he couldn't keep up.

   • 2006 September 12, Warrior Girl, Sfx Fantasy / Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 14:

     Drool slobbered out of the beast's mouth.

   • 2007 02, Colin Harvey, Vengeance, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 155:

     […] drool slobbered from the folds around its mouth. Eyes glowed, hot coals in the darkness.

   • 2009 March 26, Benjamin Obler, Javascotia, Penguin UK, →ISBN:

     […] rain slobbering into every nook.

   • 2011 April 1, Christine Dwyer Hickey, Last Train from Liguria, Atlantic Books, →ISBN:

     […] rain slobbered all over the windows. I sat and stared at it for a few moments and considered resisting. But what was I to do in a place like this,  […]

   • 2012 October 2, Viola Di Grado, 70% Acrylic 30% Wool, Europa Editions, →ISBN:

     […] rain slobbered all over the Leeds-gray façade of the student housing building. It looked as if the concrete itself was being melted away by acid, and the windows closed in quick succession as if choreographed.

   • 2016 January 5, Brenda Drake, Thief of Lies, Entangled: Teen, →ISBN:

     Rain slobbered on my legs, making them slick and cold, sending shivers across my skin. I skittered around a group of slow-moving tourists, cursing Afton for insisting I get up early and wear a skirt today. Finally breaking through the […]

   • 2019 August 5, Esperanza M. Cintrón, Shades: Detroit Love Stories, Wayne State University Press, →ISBN:

     […] spit slobbered down his chin. The smell of the cheap wine and the piss that stained his pants rose up and like a cloud of misery shoving its way into my face. I tried not to breathe.

   • 2019 December 3, Loren D. Estleman, When Old Midnight Comes Along: An Amos Walker Mystery, Forge Books, →ISBN:

     […] rain slobbered steadily past a triple-paned window in complete silence. A bomb could have gone off in the little side yard and you'd never know it if you didn't happen to look up and see the flash.

3. (uncommon) To wet with or as if with saliva; to coat with dribbly liquid.
   • 2005 April 1, Alinka Zyrmont, (Please provide the book title or journal name), AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 58:

     […] slobbering her neck with kisses while his hands were busy undressing her.

   • 2011 August 15, Tamara McHatton, Call of Duty Book One: Deadly Obligations, Desert Breeze Publishing In, →ISBN:

     […] slobbering her own kisses on his neck.

   • 2014 May 1, Nick Arnold, Horrible Science: Really Rotten Experiments, Scholastic UK, →ISBN, page 28:

     […] spit-slobbered Brussels sprouts, gloopy gravy and snotty school custard.

   • 2016 April 3, William Morris, The Roots of the Mountains (1890), Read Books Ltd, →ISBN:

     […] beast became friendly and wagged his tail and whined and slobbered his hand.

   • 2022 February 14, Toni Rae, War Torn, Toni Rae Pacheco:

     Leaves and rain slobbered the welcome mat under our feet,  […]

4. (colloquial) To kiss.
   • 1951 July 16, J[erome] D[avid] Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC, page 165:

     Finally, when they were all done slobbering around, old Sally introduced us.

5. (slang, transitive) To fellate.

• slobbery

• lobbers