slob n also slop, slub O Sup1 ~ sb 1 d Nfld (1920-), DC Nfld (1878-) for sense 1, and cp EDD sb1 2 'sea-mud' Ir, DINNEEN slab 'mud'; O Sup1 sb1 4 ~ trout (1930) for sense 2; for combs. in sense 3: O Sup1 4 ~ ice (1910-), DC Nfld ([1836]-); ~ water Nfld (1952).
1 Heavy, slushy, densely packed mass of ice fragments, snow and freezing water, esp on the surface of the sea; sludge; clipped form of slob ice below; cp SISH.
1846 TOCQUE 194 Sometimes slob, or ice ground up by the action of the waves and covered with snow, is mistaken for hard ice. 1858 [LOWELL] i, 86 We couldn't get into Broad Cove, for the slob an' cakes of ice. 1866 WILSON 282 Sometimes slob, or small loose ice covered with snow, intervenes between the larger ice, on which, if the hunter should chance to step, he must be extricated by the gaff of his friend, or he is ingulfed and perishes in the water. 1884 STEARNS 152 The ice that seriously impedes passage at this season of the year [December] is called here slob. It is a thick, consistent mass of frozen salt-water that lies in huge patches all over the surface of the water from land to land. 1895 Christmas Review 12 [proverb] Before you leave the sealer's side, the ice or slub must first be tried. [1915] 1972 GORDON 38-9 Salt water ice forms in quite a different way from the fresh water variety. The water seems to thicken with a sugary-looking scum. This is gradually pressed in along the edge of the land and cemented into a tight wedge. Each day the edge of this compressed 'slob,' as it is called, extends further and further until the area of water is completely engulfed ... the process is more rapid ir more snowy and milder weather than when there is a hard frost. 1924 ENGLAND 164 Under the thrust of the stout prow, fissures and crevasses kept constantly opening, through which the sea boiled up, with tangles of slob. 1946 MACKAY (ed) 490 The Newfoundlander has developed a wide vocabulary to describe ice conditions. To him, slush, ice-rind, pancake, sludge, slob, brash, young ice, each has its own characteristic. T 169/70-651 An' there've been times years ago in the winter when [the harbour] wasn't frozen over—all this slob around [so] that we wouldn't get a mail for over a month. T 393-67 'Twas late part o' January. An' 'twas all young slob, th' ocean slob.
2 A variety of trout which frequents river estuaries.
1964 SCOTT & CROSSMAN 75 There is probably a third or estuarine form of brook trout which live mainly in the estuaries and river mouths and which go in and out of the lower reaches of the rivers with the tides. Their growth rate is intermediate between that of mud trout and sea trout. These trout are called 'slob' in Labrador.
3 Comb slob gull: eastern glaucous gull (Larus hyperboreus hyperboreus).
1951 PETERS & BURLEIGH 222-3 Eastern Glaucous Gull... Local Names: Slob Gull, Burgomaster... It is well named the 'Slob Gull' for it prefers the drift (or slob) ice. When this ice is near shore the Glaucous Gulls become fairly common, and some even come into harbors for garbage and offal. 1967 Bk of Nfld iii, 283 Glaucous Gull: Slob Gull (because of its association with slob ice.)
slob hauler, slop ~ : long-handled wooden implement, shaped like a mattock, used to assist a boat through a sea-covering of heavy, slushy ice and snow.
T 172/4-65 We had slop haulers, that was pieces of pork barrel stave sawed off an' a hole put through it; an' a handle into it. P 148-65 A slob hauler is used to drag a boat through thin sea ice or heavy slob which makes normal rowing impossible. Two men (one on either side), each handling a slob-hauler, drag a rodney through the slob by reaching forward with synchronized strokes, digging the blade into the slob, and pulling aft. P 9-73 A pair of slob haulers is necessary for each boat, one for each of two men. They were made from a piece of flour-barrel head, the straight edge of which was between fifteen to eighteen inches long. It had a wood handle.
slob ice: see sense 1 above.
1836 [WIX]2 25 There is not so much 'slob-ice' during the winter in Placentia and St Mary's bays, as in the northern bays. 1873 CARROLL 19 No matter how thin the ice is during whelping time, seals are sure to whelp on it as long as it will bear their weight, as every moment it will be getting stronger as the 'slob' or 'sish' ice drifts off the land, or drifts in from sea against the shore, pressing such ice together. 1907 TOWNSEND 281 The ice along the seacoast forms a solid highway upon which the inhabitants travel on dog-sledges ... the breadth of this strip of solid ice along the eastern coast every winter is from twenty to twenty-five miles, while outside of this is the loose 'slob' ice, which drifts back and forth with the winds and tides, varies greatly in thickness and density, and may extend fifty or more miles out to sea. 1965 RUSSELL 84 The island was locked in ice which, at its periphery, had degenerated into slob ice, a tacky mixture of half-ice, half-sludge which was impassable for man or boat. 1975 BUTLER 94 We could not see the edge of the heavy slob ice and could not be sure if we would be able to get through to the land. 1975 Them Days i (1), p. 8 When you got to these rapids, and it's freezing-up-time, it keeps ice makin', more ice, more slob ice makin', and it finally accumulates in these rapids and chokes them. 1981 Evening Telegram 27 Mar, p. 3 All three captains said the slob ice experienced during mild temperatures after the first four days at the Front off the coast of Labrador was one of the main reasons why they returned.
slob water: slushy mixture of water, ice and half-frozen snow.
1952 BANFILL 75 We were thrown from the komatic and stood waist deep in icy slob water.
