hobnob

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to associate or socialize familiarly, especially with important or high-status people

   At the reception, young reporters hobnobbed with senior diplomats.

2. 2
   verb

   archaic: to drink or toast together

   The old friends hobnobbed over a bottle beside the fire.

3. 3
   noun

   archaic: an informal social chat or a drinking together

   Their evening hobnob continued long after the inn had closed.

From hob or nob, a drinking invitation meaning roughly "give or take" or "have or have not," related to dialectal hab nab and ultimately Old English habban ("to have") and nabban ("not to have"). The sequence moved from taking turns in a toast, to drinking together, and then to familiar social association.

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