cobbing

1. (military, prison) an unofficial form of punishment among the crew or prisoners involving blows to the buttocks from a piece of wood or a handsaw.Examples: "Previous to the infliction of cobbing, or booting, the delinquent is fairly tried by a court, consisting of–a president, the oldest soldier; members, next two oldest soldiers, youngest soldier, next youngest soldier."countableuncountable

2. (mining) The manual separation of minerals in ore using a hammer.Examples: "It is, therefore, always so arranged that the dressing progresses gradually through all the operations, beginning in the mine and ending with the cobbing, or, as the case may be. with the concentration."; "To-day, however, cobbing is still an important operation, carried out with a three-fold purpose: first, to separate pure masses of different minerals from one another and from adhereing pieces of gangue, preparing them at once for the market with qa minimum loss from comminution; secondly, to separate several classes of crussing ores according to the predominance of one or the other of the different minerals they contains; and lastly, to produce a classification according to the nature of the gangue."; "Wheeler provides greater detail on ore treatment, such as traditional cobbing and sorting methods."countableuncountable