1812. Combe, Syntax, Picturesque, xix. An arch young sprig, a banker’s clerk, Resolv’d to hoax the rev’rend spark.
1854. F. E. Smedley, Harry Coverdale, ch. viii. I thought you were hoaxing us, and I sat down to play the duet for the amiable purpose of exposing your ignorance.
Hob (or Hobbinol), subs. (old).—A clown.—Grose.
Hob and Nob (or Hob Nob), verb. (old).—1. To invite to drink; to clink glasses.
1756. Foote, Englishman from Paris, i. With, perhaps, an occasional interruption of ‘Here’s to you, friends,’ ‘Hob or nob,’ ‘Your love and mine.’
1759. Townley, High Life Below Stairs, ii. Duke. Lady Charlotte, hob or nob. Lady Char. Done, my lord; in Burgundy, if you please.
1772. Graves, Spiritual Quixote, bk. VIII., ch. xxi. (new Ed., 1808). Having drunk hob or nob with a young lady in whose eyes he wished to appear a man of consequence, he hurried out into the summer-house.
1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, s.v. Hob nob—two persons pledging each other in a glass.
1836. Horace Smith, Tin Trumpet, ‘Address to a Mummy.’ Perchance that very hand now pinioned flat, Has hob-and-nobbed with Pharoah glass for glass.
1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. xxx. He would have liked to hob and nob with celebrated pick-pockets, or drink a pot of ale with a company of burglars and cracksmen.