Word.ws English Dictionary

jobbernowl

jobbernowl noun: a person's head, particularly if misshapen or blocky.

Noun

jobbernowl (plural jobbernowls)

  1. A person's head, particularly if misshapen or blocky.
    • [She...] bathed his jobbernowl thrice in the fountain; then threw a handful of meal on his phiz …a 1693, Thomas Urquhart and Peter Anthony Motteux, translators, of François Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel, original published 1532, volume 2 (p. 685 of 2009 BiblioBazaar publication)
    • His toggery was that of a member of the prize ring – what we now call a “belcher” bound his throat – a spotted fogle bandaged his jobbernowl, and shaded his right peeper, while a white beaver crowned the occiput of the Magus.1834, William Harrison Ainsworth, Rookwood: a romance, volume 2, Carey, Lea & Blanchard, page 111
  2. A stupid person; a blockhead
    • “And a noodle and a jolt-head; you’re a jobbernowl and a doodle, a maundering mooncalf and a block-headed numps, a gaby and a loon; you’re a Hatter!” I shrieked the last epithet.1902, John Kendrick Bangs, Olympian Nights, Harper & brothers publishers, page 185
    • That he pays not the least regard to the requirements of convention marks him out as either a superior soul or a rightdown jobbernowl.1906, Natsume Sōseki, I Am a Cat (p. 189 of 2001 publication by Tuttle Publishing)

Examples of jobbernowl in a sentence

  • He stood on the backs of his brace of hacks, in equitation foul; / And either donkey wore what seemed a human jobbernowl.1868, William Conant Church, “The Ballad of Sir Ball,”, in The Galaxy,, volume 5, page 329:
  • Trenholme groaned softly in the background, eliciting a sharp command from his brother to “shut his jobbernowl.”2006, Pamela Aidan, Duty and Desire: A Novel of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman, Simon and Schuster, page 266:
  • STELLA: [...] You’re a – a jobbernowl! / JOHN (arrested): A what? / STELLA (reluctantly): Jobbernowl.1953, Roger MacDougall, Escapade: a play in three acts,, Heinemann, page 24:
  • When I discovered I could grow it here — I like to say any jobbernowl can — I was as pleased as a dog with two tails.1999, Henry Mitchell, Allen Lacy, Henry Mitchell on Gardening, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, page 79:

Forms of jobbernowl

pluraljobbernowls
alternative formjabbernowl

Origin of jobbernowl

From Middle English [Term?], compare French jobard (“gullible, crazy”) and English noll (“head”).

Questions about jobbernowl

What does jobbernowl mean?
Jobbernowl means a person's head, particularly if misshapen or blocky.
How do you use jobbernowl in a sentence?
He stood on the backs of his brace of hacks, in equitation foul; / And either donkey wore what seemed a human jobbernowl.
What part of speech is jobbernowl?
Jobbernowl is a noun.
What is the plural of jobbernowl?
The plural of jobbernowl is jobbernowls.

Words near jobbernowl in the dictionary

  1. jobbed backwards
  2. jobber
  3. jobberies
  4. jobbernoul
  5. jobbernouls
  6. jobbernowl
  7. jobbernowls
  8. jobbers
  9. jobbery
  10. jobbes
  11. jobbie

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: jobbernowl (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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