clobber

1 of 2

noun

clob·​ber ˈklä-bər 

British slang

: clothes sense 1

clobber

2 of 2

verb

clobbered; clobbering ˈklä-b(ə-)riŋ 

transitive verb

1

: to pound mercilessly

also : to hit with force

clobber a home run

2

a

: to defeat overwhelmingly

b

: to have a strongly negative impact on

businesses clobbered by the recession

c

: to criticize harshly

Synonyms

Noun

• apparel
• attire
• clothes
• clothing
• costumery
• dress
• duds
• garments
• gear
• habiliment(s)
• habit [archaic]
• rags
• raiment
• rig
• rigging
• threads
• toggery
• togs
• vestiary
• vestments
• vesture
• wear
• wearables
• weeds

Verb

• bang
• bash
• bat
• belt
• biff
• bludgeon
• bob
• bonk
• bop
• box
• bust
• clap
• clip
• clock
• clout
• crack
• hammer
• hit
• knock
• nail
• paste
• pound
• punch
• rap
• slam
• slap
• slog
• slug
• smack
• smite
• sock
• strike
• swat
• swipe
• tag
• thump
• thwack
• wallop
• whack
• whale
• zap

Examples of clobber in a Sentence

Noun

Just dump your clobber anywhere.

still wearing the same clobber he wore as an undergrad at Cambridge

Verb

If you say anything I'll clobber you.

We clobbered them in our last game.

Businesses are being clobbered by the bad economy.

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

Juno Temple’s character Dot nearly clobbers Gator with a nail bat — an object often associated with your Stranger Things character Steve Harrington — during their Halloween brawl in episode 4. —EW.com, 7 June 2024

Neat, said engineers at the University of Southern California and the University of California, Irvine, who’ve invented a clever kind of material based on the mantis shrimp’s clobber-sticks. —Matt Simon, Wired, 22 Feb. 2021

Verb

Leisure and hospitality, a sector clobbered by the hurricanes, bounced back with 54,000 new jobs. —Paul Davidson, USA TODAY, 6 Dec. 2024

The 15-year veteran pumped up what felt like a home crowd before clobbering Stafford on a third-and-9. —Brooks Kubena, The Athletic, 25 Nov. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Noun

origin unknown

Verb

origin unknown

First Known Use

Noun

1879, in the meaning defined above

Verb

circa 1942, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

clobber

verb

clob·​ber

ˈkläb-ər

1

: to hit with force

2

: to defeat by a wide margin