mob

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A large or disorderly group of people; especially one bent on riotous or destructive action.

   Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian assembly would still have been a mob.

2. 2
   noun

   The lower classes of a community; the rabble.

   A cluster of mob, who were making themselves merry with their betters.

3. 3
   noun

   A group of animals such as horses or cattle.

   Well behind the fire were the pack-saddles and a dark mob of feeding horses[.]

4. 4
   noun

   A mafia: a group that engages in organized crime.

   The Bat—they called him the Bat.[…]. He'd never been in stir, the bulls had never mugged him, he didn't run with a mob, he played a lone hand, and fenced his stuff so that even the fence couldn't swear he knew his face.

5. 5
   noun

   A group of Aboriginal people associated with an extended family group, clan group or wider community group, from a particular place or country.

   There’s nothing like local knowledge and after thousands of years living here the Noongar mob understand this land better than anyone, so it makes sense for them to tap into the lucrative tourism industry.

6. 6
   verb

   To crowd around (someone), sometimes with hostility.

   The fans mobbed a well-dressed couple who resembled their idols.

7. 7
   verb

   To crowd into or around a place.

   The shoppers mobbed the store on the first day of the sale.

8. 8
   noun

   A mob cap.

   c. 1773-1774, Oliver Goldsmith, letter to Mrs Bunbury cover their faces with mobs

Etymology

Clipping of mobile. The video-gaming sense is sometimes reported as an abbreviation of man or beast or of mobile object, but these are backronyms.