Sweating Cobs.

[Atheist]

Anyone here familiar with that terminology?

[Baldric]

Cob is an old word meaning something round. It also was used to describe a spider - as in cobweb. My suggestion for the above phrase is that when one is sweating profusely the beads of sweat feel like a spider scuttling down one's face, or alternatively the feeling of walking into a spiders web.

[tonyav]

Yes.

[Jackdaw33]

Yes. Sweating profusely or in a high state of nervous excitement.

[tonyav]

[Atheist]

I know that it means sweating profusely, but I wonder where it comes from. Perhaps Baldric has it.

[Buenchico]

From 2002:
https://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Phrases-and-Sayings/Question15415.html

[Mamyalynne]

Comes up on here now and then, there are a few suggestions here.

https://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Phrases-and-Sayings/Question15415.html

[Mamyalynne]

It's him again ;-)

[Atheist]

Just found a 2012 thread on the same subject! Sorry to bore you with a repeat question.

[tamaris]

Yes Cumbrian

[cashier]

Also Lancastrian

[david small]

Yes it was used in Birmingham in the sixties. I used it myself. Not heard it for a long time.
Apparently, sweating like a hooded, is occasionally used by certain people.

[zebo]

I never realised that everyone didn't say it, I think the reason I've never found Peter Kay funny is because so much of what he says is quite normal to me, being Notlob-born! A cob is a small horse so I assumed that was the origin of sweating cobs.

[tonyav]

I like a nice crusty cob.