na·bob

(nā′bŏb′)

1. A governor in India under the Mughal Empire. Also called nawab.

2. A person of wealth and prominence.

[Hindi nawāb, nabāb, from Arabic nuwwāb, pl. of nā'ib, deputy, active participle of nāba, to represent; see nwb in Semitic roots.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

nabob

(ˈneɪbɒb)

1. informal a rich, powerful, or important man

2. (Historical Terms) (formerly) a European who made a fortune in the Orient, esp in India

3. (Historical Terms) another name for a nawab

[C17: from Portuguese nababo, from Hindi nawwāb; see nawab]

nabobery, ˈnabobism n

ˈnabobish adj

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

na•bob

(ˈneɪ bɒb)

n.

1. any very wealthy, influential, or powerful person.

2. (formerly, in Britain) a person who had acquired a large fortune in India.

3. Archaic. nawab.

[1605–15; < Hindi nawāb]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	nabob - a governor in India during the Mogul empire nawab Bharat, India, Republic of India - a republic in the Asian subcontinent in southern Asia; second most populous country in the world; achieved independence from the United Kingdom in 1947 governor - the head of a state government
	2.	nabob - a wealthy man (especially one who made his fortune in the Orient) man of means, rich man, wealthy man - a man who is wealthy

nabob

noun

An important, influential person:

character, dignitary, eminence, leader, lion, notability, notable, personage.

Informal: big-timer, heavyweight, somebody, someone, VIP.

Slang: big shot, big wheel, bigwig, muckamuck.

Translations

nabab

nábob

nabob

[ˈneɪbɒb] N → nabab m

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

nabob

n → Nabob m; (fig also) → Krösus m

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

He had the whitest shirt on you ever see, too, and the shiniest hat; and there ain't a man in that town that's got as fine clothes as what he had; and he had a gold watch and chain, and a silver-headed cane -- the awful- est old gray-headed nabob in the State.

View in context

So her fortune went to swell the purse of a wiser sister, who had married a rich nabob; and she, to the wonder and compassionate regret of all who knew her, went to bury herself in the homely village parsonage among the hills of -.

View in context

The overwhelming logic and feeling of his speech 'On the Nabob of Arcot's Debts' produced so little effect at its delivery that the ministers against whom it was directed did not even think necessary to answer it.

View in context

"I thought it best not to ask; but you may be sure it is to some horrid old nabob, or to some dissipated little duke."

View in context

Hobnail, the reformer; and Reverend Jul Bat, who has converted the whole torrid zone in his Sunday school; and Signor Torre del Greco, who extinguished Vesuvius by pouring into it the Bay of Naples; Spahi, the Persian ambassador; and Tul Wil Shan, the exiled nabob of Nepaul, whose saddle is the new moon.--But these are monsters of one day, and to-morrow will be dismissed to their holes and dens; for in these rooms every chair is waited for.

View in context

As there is something, after all, in a historical name, and the Caverleys [sic] still had the best of it, in the way of society, Eudosia was permitted to continue the visits in White street, even after her own family were in full possession in Broadway, and Henry Halfacre, Esq., had got to be enumerated among the Manhattan nabobs. Clara Caverly was in Broadway when Honor O'Flagherty arrived with me, out of breath, in consequence of the shortness of her legs, and the necessity of making up for lost time.

Caverly owned farms in Orange County that had been leased out for long periods (the lives of three persons named at the moment the lease was granted) but which were now about to revert to him--such long-term leases, in the Hudson Valley, led to the so-called anti-rent war that was breaking out at the time Cooper wrote this book; twelve and a half cents = an English shilling, still often used in conversation in America; nabobs = rich men (usually businessmen of recent affluence)}

View in context

Few travellers that have visited Canada some thirty years since, in the days of the M'Tavishes, the M'Gillivrays, the M'Kenzies, the Frobishers, and the other magnates of the Northwest, when the company was in all its glory, but must remember the round of feasting and revelry kept up among these hyperborean nabobs.

View in context

"Perhaps," said Willoughby, "his observations may have extended to the existence of nabobs, gold mohrs, and palanquins."

View in context

"In two hours' time," said he, "these persons will depart richer by fifty piastres each, to go and risk their lives again by endeavoring to gain fifty more; then they will return with a fortune of six hundred francs, and waste this treasure in some city with the pride of sultans and the insolence of nabobs. At this moment hope makes me despise their riches, which seem to me contemptible.

View in context

There were no foreclosures of mortgages, no protested notes, no bills payable, no debts of honour in Typee; no unreasonable tailors and shoemakers perversely bent on being paid; no duns of any description and battery attorneys, to foment discord, backing their clients up to a quarrel, and then knocking their heads together; no poor relations, everlastingly occupying the spare bed-chamber, and diminishing the elbow room at the family table; no destitute widows with their children starving on the cold charities of the world; no beggars; no debtors' prisons; no proud and hard-hearted nabobs in Typee; or to sum up all in one word--no Money!

View in context

"Since theCommission can delegate authority to provide this relief to the Media Bureaucase-by-case, the Commission should declare that the Bureau is authorized to issue routine waivers of regulatory fees," note NABOB President Jim Winston and MMTC President Emeritus and Senior Advisor David Honig .

MMTC, NABOB Speak Out On FCC Regulatory Fees