English

Alternative forms

• corn-cob
• corn cob

Noun

corncob ‎(plural corncobs)

1. The central cylindrical core of an ear of corn (maize) on which the kernels are attached in rows.
   • 1858, Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, The “Breakfast-Table” Series, George Routledge and Sons (1882), page 23:

     London is like a shelled corncob on the Derby day, and there is not a clerk who could raise the money to hire a saddle with an old hack under it that can sit down on his office-stool the next day without wincing.

   • 1922, ed. Henry Haven Windsor, "Corncob Seen as Source of New Industry", Popular Mechanics, volume XXXVIII, page 765:

     Six years of persistent research at the Bureau of Chemistry of the Department of Agriculture, has resulted in establishing the fact that a number of interesting and useful by-products can be derived from the humble corncob.

   • 2009, Chika Unigwe, On Black Sisters Street, Random House, ISBN 978-1-4000-6833-3, page 32:

     He bit into a corncob, and Chisom watched him munch with his mouth open, his jaws working the corn like a mini grinding machine.

Derived terms

• corncob pipe

Translations