clobber
Syllables: clob·berUK/ˈklɒb.ə(ɹ)/US/ˈklɑb.ɚ/
clobber verb: to hit or bash severely; to seriously harm or damage.
Verb
clobber (third-person singular simple present clobbers, present participle clobbering, simple past and past participle clobbered)
- To hit or bash severely; to seriously harm or damage.
- So the temptation to clobber was always there, and it was sometimes more difficult not to strike than it would have been to strike, and the consequences be damned.1954, Evan Hunter, The Blackboard Jungle, published 1984, page 201
- Mr. Speaker, Sir, in the East African Standard newspaper we saw a picture of a man being carried away after being clobbered. We also saw women being clobbered by well-built policemen using big clubs. They were clobbering women who had already fallen on the ground.2000 November 30, Kenya National Assembly Official Record (Hansard), page 3034
- To overwrite (data) or override (an assignment of a value), often unintentionally or unexpectedly.
- It is therefore clear that the system itself must be truly "clobber proof"; that is, no user may be capable of changing anyone else's program or tying up the system in any way that would disrupt normal service to other users.1965 November, Charles W. Adams, “Responsive time-shared computing in business its significance and implications”, in AFIPS '65 (Fall, part I): Proceedings of the November 30--December 1, 1965, fall...
- In the slang of computer programmers, the second re-entry address is likely to "clobber" the machine's memory of the original re-entry address.1966, George A. Miller, “Thinking machines: myths and actualities”, in Daniel Bell, Irving Kristol, editors, The Public Interest, volume 2, New York, N.Y.: National Affairs, Inc., archived from the...
Noun (1)
clobber (uncountable)
- A beating.
- Near-synonyms: clobbering, clubbing, thumping
- He should have stepped back and given Hemi room to chat and see where the women^([sic]) was going, yet he found himself drawn over to them. His friend would probably give him a clobber later on for his stupidity […]2014, Philippa Ballantine, Weather Child
- Synonyms:
- clobbering, clubbing, thumping
- A bash on say the head, typically with a tool or object rather than with fists.
Noun (2)
clobber (uncountable)
- Clothing; clothes.
- W'y, they call a man a robber if 'e stuffs 'is marchin' clobber / With the— / (Chorus) Loo! loo! Lulu! lulu! Loo! loo! Loot! loot! loot!1892, Rudyard Kipling, “Loot”, in Barrack-Room Ballads and Other Verses, 3rd edition, London: Methuen & Co. […], →OCLC, page 31
- Now to get rid of this respectable clobber and feel like a man again.1900, [George] Bernard Shaw, “Captain Brassbound’s Conversion”, in Three Plays for Puritans: The Devil’s Disciple, Cæsar and Cleopatra, & Captain Brassbound’s Conversion, London: Grant Richards, […]...
- Equipment.
Noun (3)
clobber (uncountable)
clobber meaning in Tamil, Urdu and Kannada
clobber in Tamil
- மெழுகுதல்
clobber in Urdu
- کوٹنا, پیٹنا, ٹھکائی کرنا
clobber in Kannada
- ಜಡಿ, ಸದಕು, ಹೊಯ್ಯು
Examples of clobber in a sentence
- Inferences made in accordance with this reason are defeated by finding that the merged plan clobbers one of the causal-links in one of the constituent plans.1999, Michael J. Wooldridge, Anand Rao, Foundations of Rational Agency, page 74:
- The cp command does one thing as it clobbers a file; mv and ln do another.2004, John R. Levine, Margaret Levine Young, Unix for Dummies, page 314:
- These functions collide, and we can see in Figure 7-1 that the debug() function for SexyWidgets clobbers the developer′s debug() function.2007, Billy Hoffman, Bryan Sullivan, Ajax Security, unnumbered page:
- If you create your own mood instance attribute without being aware of the name clash, you will clobber the mood attribute used by the methods inherited from Dog.2022, Luciano Ramalho, chapter 11, in Fluent Python, 2nd edition, O'Reilly, →ISBN:
Synonyms of clobber
- slog
- slug
- clobbering
- clubbing
- thumping
- beat someone's ass
- beat the crap out of
- beat the daylights out of
- beat the devil out of
- beat the pants off
27 more synonymsFewer synonyms
- beat the piss out of
- beat the poop out of
- beat the snot out of
- beat the shit out of
- beat the stuffing out of
- beat the tar out of
- bludgeon
- give a licking to
- kick someone's ass
- kick someone's butt
- kick the crap out of
- kick the piss out of
- kick the poop out of
- kick the shit out of
- kick the snot out of
- kick the stuffing out of
- kick the tar out of
- knock the daylight out of
- knock the living daylights out of
- lick
- lick the pants off
- lower the boom on
- smash someone's face in
- bash someone's face in
- smash someone's head
- break someone's face
- bash someone's head
Forms of clobber
| third-person singular present | clobbers |
|---|---|
| present participle | clobbering |
| past participle | clobbered |
| past | clobbered |
Origin of clobber
British slang from 1941; possibly onomatopoeic of the sound of detonated bombs in the distance.
British slang from 19th century of unknown origin, perhaps from Yiddish.
Of obscure origin, but compare clabber (“mud, wet clay”).
Words formed from clobber
Phrases with clobber
Words that rhyme with clobber
1 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about clobber
- What does clobber mean?
- Clobber means to hit or bash severely; to seriously harm or damage.
- What is clobber in Tamil?
- Clobber in Tamil is மெழுகுதல். See Clobber meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use clobber in a sentence?
- Inferences made in accordance with this reason are defeated by finding that the merged plan clobbers one of the causal-links in one of the constituent plans.
- What part of speech is clobber?
- Clobber can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce clobber?
- Clobber is pronounced /ˈklɒb.ə(ɹ)/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of clobber?
- The past tense of clobber is clobbered.
Words near clobber in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: clobber (page history and authors); clobber (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); clobber (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); clobber (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: EN-AU ck1 clobber.ogg.
Cite this entry: “clobber.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/clobber. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.