Word.ws English Dictionary

corncob

Syllables: corn·cob/ˈkɔːn.kɒb//ˈkɔɹn.kɑb/

corncob noun: the central cylindrical core of an ear of corn (maize) on which the kernels are attached in rows.

corncob: the central cylindrical core of an ear of corn (maize) on which the kernels are attached in rows
Image: Gaurav Dhwaj Khadka, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

corncob (plural corncobs)

  1. The central cylindrical core of an ear of corn (maize) on which the kernels are attached in rows.
    • London is like a shelled corncob on the Derby day, and there is not a clerk who could raise the money to hire a saddle with an old hack under it that can sit down on his office-stool the next day without wincing.1857–1858, Oliver Wendell Holmes [Sr.], chapter I, in The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, Boston, Mass.: Phillips, Sampson and Company, published 1858, →OCLC, page 23
    • Six years of persistent research at the Bureau of Chemistry of the Department of Agriculture, has resulted in establishing the fact that a number of interesting and useful by-products can be derived from the humble corncob.1922, “Corncob Seen as Source of New Industry”, in Henry Haven Windsor, editor, Popular Mechanics, volume XXXVIII, page 765
  2. (informal) A yokel.

Verb

corncob (third-person singular simple present corncobs, present participle corncobbing, simple past and past participle corncobbed)

  1. (intransitive) To disintegrate by the blades becoming severed from the axis
  2. (Internet, US, transitive) To defeat (someone) who then refuses to admit defeat.
    • “Do you enjoy being corncobbed?”2017 July 18, Jeremy Gordon, “CNN’s Most Cynical Pundit Got Mercilessly Owned in a Reddit AMA”, in SPIN
    • Trump had lost but was denying that this was the case. He had been corncobbed.2017 September 4, Amelia Tait, “The internet dictionary: what does it mean to be corncobbed?”, in The New Statesmen

corncob meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Tagalog and Arabic

corncob in Hindi

corncob, roasted corncob, ear of corn
भुट्टा bhuṭṭā

corncob in Urdu

core of an ear of corn
چھلی

corncob in Tagalog

core of an ear of corn
busal, busil

corncob in Arabic

core of an ear of corn
كُوز ذُرَة kūz ḏura, كُوز الذُرَة kūz al-ḏura
More languagesFewer languages
corncob in Indonesian
tongkol jagung
corncob in Thai
ซังข้าวโพด

Examples of corncob in a sentence

  • He bit into a corncob, and Chisom watched him munch with his mouth open, his jaws working the corn like a mini grinding machine.2009, Chika Unigwe, On Black Sisters Street, Random House,, →ISBN, page 32:
  • Distracted cops, rude asteroids and the corncobbing of Andrew Koenig2021, Daniel Hill, "The Big Mad: Missed Connections", Riverfront Times, 24 March 2021 - 30 March 2021, page 11

Synonyms of corncob

18 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of corncob

Forms of corncob

Noun
pluralcorncobs
alternative formcorn-cob
alternative formcorn
alternative formcob
Verb
third-person singular presentcorncobs
present participlecorncobbing
past participlecorncobbed
pastcorncobbed

Origin of corncob

From corn + cob. The Internet slang sense emerged from a 2011 absurdist tweet by Weird Twitter personality dril in which a man furiously denies being owned as he transforms into a corncob.

Words formed from corncob

Phrases with corncob

Questions about corncob

What does corncob mean?
Corncob means the central cylindrical core of an ear of corn (maize) on which the kernels are attached in rows.
What is corncob in Hindi?
Corncob in Hindi is भुट्टा (bhuṭṭā). See Corncob meaning in Hindi.
How do you use corncob in a sentence?
He bit into a corncob, and Chisom watched him munch with his mouth open, his jaws working the corn like a mini grinding machine.
What part of speech is corncob?
Corncob can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce corncob?
Corncob is pronounced /ˈkɔːn.kɒb/.
What is the plural of corncob?
The plural of corncob is corncobs.

Words near corncob in the dictionary

  1. cornbreads
  2. Cornbrook
  3. Cornbury and Wychwood
  4. corncake
  5. corncakes
  6. corncob
  7. corncob engine
  8. corncob engines
  9. corncobbed
  10. corncobbing
  11. corncobs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: corncob (page history and authors); भुट्टा (Hindi) (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-corncob.wav.

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