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Origin of Phrase 'sweating cobs'
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What is the origin of the phrase 'to sweat cobs'?
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For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.A "cob" is a generic term for a type of (UK) native breed horse.
They were the common workhorse in Victorian Britain, pulling delivery carts, canal barges and so on. When they work, they sweat, so "sweating like a cob" means sweating like a workhorse. This form of the saying still gets used, certainly in Yorkshire.
It is but a short linguistic hop from that to "sweating cobs", so I would suggest that this is the most likely origin.
They were the common workhorse in Victorian Britain, pulling delivery carts, canal barges and so on. When they work, they sweat, so "sweating like a cob" means sweating like a workhorse. This form of the saying still gets used, certainly in Yorkshire.
It is but a short linguistic hop from that to "sweating cobs", so I would suggest that this is the most likely origin.
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