Austral English / A dictionary of Australasian words, phrases and usages with those aboriginal-Australian and Maori words which have become incorporated in the language, and the commoner scientific words that have had their origin in Australasia

by Edward Ellis Morris

Of <i>Clothes</i>—

1844. `Port Phillip Patriot,' July 22, p. 2, col. 6:

"They buttoned up in front; the only suit to the mob which did so."

Of <i>Books</i>—

1892. Gilbert Parker, `Round the Compass in Australia,' p. 72:

"If it was in your mob of books, give this copy to somebody that would appreciate it."

<i>More generally</i>—

1852. Mrs. Meredith, `My Home in Tasmania,' vol. ii. p. 20:

"A number of cattle together is here usually termed a `mob,' and truly their riotous and unruly demeanour renders the designation far from inapt; but I was very much amused at first, to hear people gravely talking of `a mob of sheep,' or `a mob of <i>lambs</i>,' and it was some time ere I became accustomed to the novel use of the word. Now, the common announcements that `the cuckoo hen has brought out a rare mob of chickens,' or that `there's a great mob of quail in the big paddock,' are to me fraught with no alarming anticipations."

1853. H. Berkeley Jones, `Adventures in Australia,' p. 114: