yob

Backslang for boy. The second sense was likely influenced by hobnob and/or yokel.

• (UK) enPR: yŏb, IPA^(key): /jɒb/

• Audio (AU)

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• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒb

yob (plural yobs)

1. (obsolete, costermongers, back slang) A boy.
   • 1897, A. R. Marshall, Pomes^[sic] from the Pink 'Un, page 76:

     And you bet that each gal, not to mention each yob,
     Didn't care how much ooftish it cost 'em per nob.

   • 2010, Paul R. Wilson, The Birthday of Eternity, page 209:

     As we left the cemetery, I heard an elderly gravedigger muttering back slang to himself before Lucien's headstone. "Bloody shame, ain't it? Doubt the yob did much living by eighteen."
     I corrected the man, saying, “No fear, that yob did plenty of living.”

2. (derogatory, chiefly British, New Zealand, slang) A person who engages in antisocial behaviour or drunkenness.
   • 2005 January 10, Melissa Jackson, “Music to deter yobs by”, in BBC News‎:
   • 2009 August 8, Janet Daley, “The real reason for all those louts on holiday”, in The Telegraph‎:

     Yes, it's holiday time again for British yobs – and the rest of us can flee to those parts of Abroad which the louts ignore, or just cringe in shame at home.

   • 2017 March 27, Keiran Southern, “'We could have been killed': Fury at yobs who bricked windscreen with baby girl in car”, in Chronicle Live‎, retrieved 2017-03-28:

     But while doing 70mph on the A1, a hooded yob threw rock^{[sic – meaning a rock]} from a grass verge onto the windscreen of the family’s Jeep, causing it to swerve.

   • 2022 November 2, Paul Bigland, “New trains, old trains, and splendid scenery”, in RAIL, number 969, page 57:

     Three local yobs have also joined, but they have not reckoned on a redoubtable Conductor and two local revenue protection officers who soon escort them off the train!

• (boy): See Thesaurus:boy
• (antisocial person):
  • (standard register): hooligan
  • (British): tearaway, chav
  • (chiefly Australian slang): yobbo
  • (Geordie slang): charva
• bully, hooligan, roughneck, rowdy, ruffian

• (antisocial person): yobbish, yobbo

• (boy): elrig (“girl”)

• BYO, boy, byo, oby