1886. R. L. Stevenson, Kidnapped, p. 68. So the pair sat down and hob-a-nobbed.
2. (old).—To give or take; to hit or miss at random. [Saxon, habban, to have; nabban, not to have.]
1577–87. Holinshed, Chroncles of Englande, Scotlande, and Irelande (1807) p. 317. The citizens in their rage shot habbe or nabbe (hit or miss) at random.
1602. Shakspeare, Twelfth Night, iii., 4. Hob-nob is his word, give ’t or take ’t.
1615. Harington, Epigrams, iv. Not of Jack Straw, with his rebellious crew, That set king, realm, and laws, at hab or nab.
1673. Quack Astrologer. He writes of the weather hab nab, and as the toy takes him, chequers the year with foul and fair.
3. (colloquial).—To be on terms of close intimacy; to consort familiarly together.
1870. Mark Twain, Innocents Abroad, ch. i. They were to hob-nob with nobility and hold friendly converse with kings and princes. [[321]]
1892. Hume Nisbet, Bushranger’s Sweetheart, p. 109. I had hob-nobbed for the last two hours with the most notorious bushranger in the colony.
1892. A. K. Green, Cynthia Wakeham’s Money, p. 5. Each tree looks like a spectre hob-nobbing with its neighbour.