Word.ws English Dictionary

cobber

/ˈkɒbɚ/

cobber noun: a pal, buddy, mate, friend; often used in direct address by one male to another.

Noun

cobber (plural cobbers)

  1. (Australia, dated, slang) A pal, buddy, mate, friend; often used in direct address by one male to another.
    • What's up, cobber?
    • G'day cobber!
  2. (Australia) A sweet consisting of a small block of hard caramel covered in chocolate.

Forms of cobber

pluralcobbers

Origin of cobber

Uncertain. Perhaps from Yiddish חבֿר (khaver, “friend, comrade”), from Hebrew חבר (ḥāḇēr, “friend”), possibly via Dutch gabber; alternately, perhaps from the British dialectal term cob (“take a liking to”), or a conflation of both. The suggestion that it is a self-referential collective term for convicts and immigrants who departed for Australian shores from the Irish port of Cobh seems chronologically unlikely.

Words formed from cobber

Words that rhyme with cobber

1 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about cobber

What does cobber mean?
Cobber means a pal, buddy, mate, friend; often used in direct address by one male to another.
What part of speech is cobber?
Cobber is a noun.
How do you pronounce cobber?
Cobber is pronounced /ˈkɒbɚ/.
What is the plural of cobber?
The plural of cobber is cobbers.

Words near cobber in the dictionary

  1. Cobbannah
  2. Cobbans
  3. Cobbe
  4. cobbed
  5. Cobben
  6. cobber
  7. cobber up
  8. Cobberas
  9. cobbered up
  10. cobbering up
  11. cobbers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cobber (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 cobber.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-cobber.wav.

Cite this entry: “cobber.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cobber. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.