bob

verb

/bɒb/UK/bɑb/US

Etymology

From Middle English bobben (“to strike, beat, shake, jog”), of uncertain origin. Compare Scots bob (“to mark, dance with a bobbing motion”), Icelandic boppa (“to wave up and down”), Swedish bobba (“to bob”), Dutch dobberen ("bobbing").

derived from bobben

Definitions

1
To move gently and vertically, in either a single motion or repeatedly up and down, at or…
To move gently and vertically, in either a single motion or repeatedly up and down, at or near the surface of a body of water, or similar medium.
- The cork bobbed gently in the calm water.
- The ball, which we had thought lost, suddenly bobbed up out of the water.
- The flowers were bobbing in the wind.
2
To move (something) as though it were bobbing in water.
- I bobbed my head underwater and saw the goldfish.
- bob one’s head
To curtsy.
›+ 34 more definitionsshow fewer
1. 4
  To strike with a quick, light blow
  To strike with a quick, light blow; to tap.
  - And if any man hapned, by longe sittynge, to slepe, or, by any other countenance, to shewe him selfe to be weary, he was sodaynly bobbed on the face by the seruantes of Nero, […]
  - Lo, lo, lo, lo, what modicums of wit he vtters, his euaſions haue eares thus long, I haue bobd his braine more then he has beate my bones.
2. 5
  Synonym of blob (“catch eels using worms strung on thread”).
  - After they had had supper Frank said, Do you remember those men whom we saw near Norwich, who sat in small boats all the night long, and with a line in each hand, bobbed for eels?
3. 6
  A bobbing motion
  A bobbing motion; a quick up and down movement.
  - a bob of the head
4. A curtsy.
5. 8
  A bobber (buoyant fishing device).
  - Or yellow bobs turn’d up before the plough / Are chiefest baits, with cork and lead enough.
6. Any of various hesperiid butterflies.
7. 10
  A bob haircut.
  - Whether your hair covers your head in short curls, a pert pixie cut, smooth braids, or a long bob, do yourself a good turn by finding the styles which are most becoming to you.
8. 11
  Any round object attached loosely to a flexible line, a rod, a body part etc., so that it…
  Any round object attached loosely to a flexible line, a rod, a body part etc., so that it may swing when hanging from it.
  - Ecod! I have got them. Here they are. My cousin Con's necklaces, bobs and all.
9. The dangling mass of a pendulum or plumb line.
10. The docked tail of a horse.
11. The short runner of a sled.
12. A bobsleigh.
13. A small wheel, made of leather, with rounded edges, used in polishing spoons, etc.
14. A working beam in a steam engine.
15. A particular style of ringing changes on bells.
16. A blow
  A blow; a shake or jog; a rap, as with the fist.
17. 20
  A knot or short curl of hair
  A knot or short curl of hair; also, a bob wig.
  - A plain brown bob he wore.
18. 21
  The refrain of a song.
  - Ay, Ay, and Then to Bed, ſays the Bride. This Girl did but ſpeak the Widows Mind; for let Fleſh and Blood pretend what it will, to Bed, to Bed, will be the Bob of the Song.
19. A short line ending a stanza of a poem.
20. 23
  A jeer
  A jeer; a sharp jest or taunt.
  - Hee, that a Foole doth very wiſely hit, Doth very fooliſhly, although he ſmart, Seeme ſenſeleſſe of the bob.
21. 24
  To cut (hair) into a bob haircut.
  - I got my hair bobbed. How do you like it?
22. To shorten by cutting
  To shorten by cutting; to dock; to crop.
23. To bobsleigh.
24. 27
  A shilling.
  - One of the bottlenosed fraternity it was went by the name of James Wought alias Saphiro alias Spark and Spiro, put an ad in the papers saying he'd give a passage to Canada for twenty bob.
  - “’Ere y’are, the best rig-out you ever ’ad. A tosheroon [half a crown]^([sic]) for the coat, two ’ogs for the trousers, one and a tanner for the boots, and a ’og for the cap and scarf. That’s seven bob.”
25. A 10-cent coin, ten cents.
26. 29
  An unspecified amount of money.
  - Spot me a few bob, Robert.
  - I could have saved myself a few bob buying it somewhere else.
  - A great many visitors are expected. They will take pictures of each other under the cherry blossoms and—the Chamber of Commerce hopes—spend a few bobs for hot logs, gasoline, eastern finery and souvenirs of the nation’s capital.
27. Clipping of shishkabob.
28. 31
  A graphical element, resembling a hardware sprite, that can be blitted around the screen…
  A graphical element, resembling a hardware sprite, that can be blitted around the screen in large numbers.
  - The bob list determines the drawing priority […]
  - IMHO, youd ^([sic]) be better doing other things with the CPU and letting the blitter draw bobs, esp on a machine with fast ram.
  - Changes: This release adds 2 new effects (bobs and unlimited bobs), has a GFX directory for sharing graphics, adds utility functions to the common code
29. Vibrator (device designed to stimulate a woman's genitals).
30. Back-of-the-book
  Back-of-the-book; denoting those stamps in a catalogue that are not used for the payment of regular postage fees, and are displayed separately in the catalogue after that listing; the division between these two groups varies with the publisher.
31. Acronym of bur oak blight (“a fungal disease of plants”).
32. 35
  A diminutive of the male given name Robert.
  - Miramax Films cofounders Bob and Harvey Weinstein will end their successful, but often tumultuous, 12-year relationship with The Walt Disney Company to launch their own media company.
  - For the last decade at least, the trend seems to be that more untraditional names are being chosen over the Bobs, the Toms, the Sues and the Marys.
33. 36
  The person or system receiving a message or signal from a source conventionally known as…
  The person or system receiving a message or signal from a source conventionally known as Alice.
  - The key that Alice and Bob are to share cannot be transmitted in the clear. Either it must be enciphered when sent, or Alice and Bob must derive it without an exhange of data from which the key can be derived.
34. A generic male person.

The neighborhood

neighborBobby
neighborDobbin
neighborRob
neighborRobbie

Derived

abob, apple bobbing, bobber, bobbish, bobble, bob-cherry, bobchin, bobfly, bob-job, bob under, bob up, emu bob, plumb bob, bingle, bits and bobs, bobcat, bob jerom, bobkitten, bobrun, bobweight, bob wig, Castle bob, dry bob, Dutch bob, earbob, gay bob, light bob, monobob, Pixie-bob, staggering bob, starry bob, wet bob, a bob each way, bent as a nine-bob note, bent as a two bob, bob-a-job, queer as a nine bob note, six bob a day tourist, two bob, two-bob bit · +6 more

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for bob. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA