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Clobber vs Clabber - What's the difference?

clobber | clabber |

As verbs the difference between clobber and clabber

is that clobber is (slang) to hit or bash severely; to seriously harm or damage while clabber is to sour or curdle milk.

As nouns the difference between clobber and clabber

is that clobber is (uk|australia|slang) clothing while clabber is sour or curdled milk.

clobber

English

Etymology 1

British slang from 1941; possibly onomatopoeic of the sound of detonated bombs in the distance.

Verb

(en verb)
  • (slang) To hit or bash severely; to seriously harm or damage.
  • * 1954 , , The Blackboard Jungle , 1984, page 201,
  • 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.
  • * 2000 November 30, Kenya National Assembly Official Record (Hansard) , page 3034,
  • 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.
  • * 2002 , Donald K. Burleson, Oracle9i UNIX Administration Handbook , page 395,
  • Most of the job of the UNIX Oracle DBA is keeping the database running, and it does not come as a surprise when they see how easy it is to clobber a server.
    The following script cripples the UNIX server by an implosion of incoming jobs. This is known as a denial of service (DOS) attack.
  • (computing) To overwrite (data) or override (an assignment of a value), often unintentionally or unexpectedly.
  • * 1999 , Michael J. Wooldridge, Anand Rao, Foundations of Rational Agency , page 74,
  • 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.
  • * 2004 , John R. Levine, Margaret Levine Young, Unix for Dummies , page 314,
  • The cp command does one thing as it clobbers a file; mv and ln do another.
  • * 2007 , Billy Hoffman, Bryan Sullivan, Ajax Security , unnumbered page,
  • These functions collide, and we can see in Figure 7-1 that the debug() function for SexyWidgets clobbers' the developer?s debug() function. The last function declared with the same name in the same scope will silently ' clobber the earlier function definition.

    Etymology 2

    British slang from 19th Century.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (UK, Australia, slang) Clothing.
  • * 1892 , , Loot'', in ''Barrack-Room Ballads , Gutenberg eBook #2819,
  • 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!
  • * 1899 , , Gutenberg eBook #3418,
  • Now to get rid of this respectable clobber and feel like a man again.
  • * 1919 , , Red Robin'', in ''Jim of The Hills , Gutenberg Australia eBook #0500931,
  • I was thinkin? of the widow while I gets me clobber on - / Like a feller will start thinkin? of the times that?s past an? gone.
  • (UK, slang) Equipment.
  • References

    * * The Dinkum Dictionary *

    Anagrams

    *

    clabber

    English

    Alternative forms

    * clauber

    Noun

    (-)
  • sour or curdled milk
  • wet clay or mud
  • Verb

    (en verb)
  • to sour or curdle milk