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"mobs" from Tailor of Gloucester

nekocat

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The tailor worked and worked, and he talked to himself: "No breadth at all, and cut on the cross; it is no breadth at all; tippets for mice and ribbons for mobs! for mice!" said the Tailor of Gloucester.
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What does "mobs" mean?
(1) just "people", with no bad meanings.
(2) gangs, people gathered with a bad connotation
 
I can't say for certain what the author intended, but a mob can be any grouping of people. More often than not though, it has a bad connotation to it, such as the term "angry mob". Or a very common type of sentence I hear often right before Christmas every year, "All the stores were mobbed with people!", implying that they were very crowded. But getting back to your quote, my guess is that the author is just referring to a normal grouping of people, partly because this quote of probably very old it just seems more likely to me.
 
Mobs can also mean groups of people who are in within close proximity of each other but not necessarily related or even interacting with each other. for example people in a city can be referred to as a mob.
 
mobs is usually preferred to gangsters, the maffia

(in american movies they always say for maffia: The mobs)
 
It's hard to tell in some of those old books what the speaker means. I have no idea in this case! I agree that "mob" can mean a group of people without negative connotations, but it's usually used to mean a group of people who are likely to cause some destruction. Yes, "The Mob" is sometimes used to mean the mafia.
 
The correct answer is 1. mobs just refers to large groups of people in general, not always in a bad way.
The Mob on the other hand is another matter, enough said.
 
いつも本当にありがとう！助かるよ！
Thanks always for your help! I appreciate each one of your help!
 
I don't know whether this is connected with the intended meaning, but in 'old' English/England, there used to be a style of hat called a 'mob-cap'. Because the story is about a tailor, and ribbons, I wonder whether the character might have been talking about 'ribbons for mob-caps'?

I don't know what a mob-cap looks like though ....... as far as I remember from context, it is a kind of hat worn by old ladies...
 

Thanks, Kinsao! I'm learning every day!!
 

I also would like to thank you, Kinsao!
Mobcap - Wikipedia
Here're some pictures of mob-caps, indeed the cap has a ribbon on it!
And considering the size of small pieces of cloth and ribbon, "mobs! for mice" does make sense!!
 
Wow, thank you for the link! I had never seen a mob-cap before.
 
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