glob

from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

glob \glob\ n.
   1. a compact mass, especially of a semiliquid or viscous
      substance; as, a glob of glue fell on my shoe.

   Syn: ball, clod, lump, clump, chunk.
        [WordNet 1.5 +PJC]

from Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003)

glob
 /glob/, not, /glohb/, v.,n.

   [Unix; common] To expand special characters in a wildcarded name, or
   the act of so doing (the action is also called globbing). The Unix
   conventions for filename wildcarding have become sufficiently
   pervasive that many hackers use some of them in written English,
   especially in email or news on technical topics. Those commonly
   encountered include the following:

   *  wildcard for any string (see also {UN*X})
   ?  wildcard for any single character (generally read this way only at
   the beginning or in the middle of a word)
   [] delimits a wildcard matching any of the enclosed characters
   {} alternation of comma-separated alternatives; thus, `foo{baz,qux}'
   would be read as `foobaz' or `fooqux'

   Some examples: "He said his name was [KC]arl" (expresses ambiguity).
   "I don't read talk.politics.*" (any of the talk.politics subgroups on
   {Usenet}). Other examples are given under the entry for {X}. Note that
   glob patterns are similar, but not identical, to those used in
   {regexp}s.

   Historical note: The jargon usage derives from glob, the name of a
   subprogram that expanded wildcards in archaic pre-Bourne versions of
   the Unix shell.

from The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)

glob

   /glob/, *not* /glohb/ To expand {wild card} characters in a
   {path name}.

   In {Unix} the {file name} wild cards are:

    * = zero or more characters (E.g. {UN*X})

    ? = any single character

    [] any of the enclosed characters

    {} indicate alternation of comma-separated alternatives, thus
    foo{baz,qux} would expand to "foobaz" or "fooqux".  This
    syntax generates a list of all possible expansions, rather
    than matching one.

   These have become sufficiently pervasive that hackers use them
   in written English, especially in {electronic mail} or
   {Usenet} news on technical topics.  E.g. "He said his name was
   [KC]arl" (expresses ambiguity).  "I don't read
   talk.politics.*" (any of the talk.politics subgroups on
   {Usenet}).  Other examples are given under the entry for {X}.
   Note that glob patterns are similar, but not identical, to
   those used in {regexps}.

   "glob" was a subprogram that expanded wild cards in archaic
   pre-{Bourne} versions of the {Unix} {shell}.

   (1997-07-16)