Noah Webster
Cob
COB, noun
1. The top or head; a covetous wretch; a foreign coin.
2. In America, the receptacle of the maiz, or American corn; a shoot in form of a pin or spike, on which grows the corn in rows. This receptacle, with the corn, is called the ear.
3. A sea-fowl, the sea-cob.
4. A ball or pellet for feeding fowls.
5. In some parts of England, a spider. Old Dutch, kop or koppe, a spider, retained in koppespin, spinnekop, a spider.
6. A horse not castrated; a strong poney.
COB, verb transitive In seamens language, to punish by striking the breech with a flat piece of wood, or with a board.