bob

present singular third person bobs · participle present bobbing · participle past bobbed · past bobbed

1. intransitiveTo 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 flowers were bobbing in the wind.

   2 more examples

   The cork bobbed gently in the calm water.

   The ball, which we had thought lost, suddenly bobbed up out of the water.

   Synonyms: surge

2. transitiveTo move (something) as though it were bobbing in water.

   bob one’s head

   1 more example

   I bobbed my head underwater and saw the goldfish.

   1. transitivewith onTo perform oral sex on someone.

      She bobbed on his knob.

3. To curtsy.
4. To strike with a quick, light blow; to tap.

   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.

   c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Famous Historie of Troylus and Cresseid. […] (First Quarto), London: […] G[eorge] Eld for R[ichard] Bonian and H[enry] Walley, […], published 1609, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], signature [C4], recto

   2 more examples

   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, […]

   1531, Thomas Elyot, “In what wise musike may be to a noble man necessarie: and what modestie ought to be therin”, in Ernest Rhys, editor, The Boke Named the Governour […] (Everyman’s Library), London: J[oseph] M[alaby] Dent & Co; New York, N.Y.: E[dward] P[ayson] Dutton & Co, published [1907], →OCLC, 1st book, page 26

   […] I have bob'd your vviſe Guardian Mayor too, vvho, I hear, is crackt-brain'd yonder for loſs of his Heireſs, vvhom I have atchieved and married here in ſpite of ye by dint of Brain and Merit.

   [1703], Tho[mas] d’Urfey, The Old Mode & the New, or, Country Miss with Her Furbeloe. A Comedy. […], London: […] Bernard Lintott, and sold by Samuel Clark, […], Francis Faucet […], and Lucas Stowkey […], →OCLC, Act IV, scene ii, page 68

5. intransitiveSynonym 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?

   1876, George Christopher Davies, The Swan and Her Crew, page 134

   Synonyms: blob

plural bobs

1. A bobbing motion; a quick up and down movement.

   a bob of the head

2. A curtsy.
3. A bobber (buoyant fishing device).

   Or yellow bobs turn’d up before the plough / Are chiefest baits, with cork and lead enough.

   1613, John Dennys, The Secrets of Angling

4. Any of various hesperiid butterflies.

plural bobs

1. 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.

   1955, Adah Broadbent, Teen-Age Glamor, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, page 59

   Synonyms: bob cut

2. 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.

   1773, Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer

3. The dangling mass of a pendulum or plumb line.
4. The docked tail of a horse.
5. The short runner of a sled.
6. A bobsleigh.
7. A small wheel, made of leather, with rounded edges, used in polishing spoons, etc.
8. A working beam in a steam engine.
9. A particular style of ringing changes on bells.
10. A blow; a shake or jog; a rap, as with the fist.
11. obsoleteA knot or short curl of hair; also, a bob wig.

    A plain brown bob he wore.

    1737, William Shenstone, The Extent of Cookery

12. obsoleteThe 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.

    1692, Roger L’Estrange, “[The Fables of Abstemius, &c.] Fab[le] CCLXXXIII. A Widow had a mind to Marry.”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC, page 248

13. A short line ending a stanza of a poem.
14. obsoleteA 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.

    c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene vii], page 203, column 1, lines 53–55

present singular third person bobs · participle present bobbing · participle past bobbed · past bobbed

1. transitiveTo cut (hair) into a bob haircut.

   I got my hair bobbed. How do you like it?

   1 more example

   [Shangai Lily:]There's only one thing I wouldn't have done, Doc. [Harvey:] What, for instance? [Shangai Lily:] I wouldn't have bobbed my hair.

   1932, Jules Furthman, Shanghai Express

2. transitiveTo shorten by cutting; to dock; to crop.
3. To bobsleigh.

plural rare bobs

1. AustraliaKenyaNew ZealandUKdatedhistoricalslangA 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.

   1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 12: Cyclops]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 308

   2 more examples

   “’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.”

   1933 January 9, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter XXIX, in Down and Out in Paris and London, London: Victor Gollancz […], →OCLC, pages 214–215

   […] there was a sound of barking and a great hefty dog of the Hound of the Baskervilles type came galloping at me, obviously intent on mayhem,[…]. And I was just commending my soul to God and thinking that this was where my new flannel trousers got about thirty bobs' worth of value bitten out of them, […]

   1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XVII, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC

2. AustraliadatedslangA 10-cent coin, ten cents.
3. slangAn unspecified small amount of money.

   I could have saved myself a few bob buying it somewhere else.

   3 more examples

   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.

   1949 March 23, “Capital Planning For Cherry Blossom Festival On April 3”, in Warren Times-Mirror, volume forty-nine, Warren, Pa., page twelve, column 1

   It was a Molotov cocktail to dispose of my mortal remains. “Cor, what a beauty.” “Hello, somebody’s thrown a match into a box of fireworks; easy to do.” “A few bobs’ worth of whizzers gone up there, Mabel.”

   1964, Len Deighton, “Tuesday, November 5th”, in Funeral in Berlin, New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, published 1965, →LCCN, page 294

   So what can I do for you? Local charity, is it? Policeman's ball? Widows and orphans? I'm usually good for a bob or two.

   1999 February 3, Anthony Horowitz et al., “Strangler's Wood”, in Midsomer Murders

plural bobs

1. abbreviationclippingClipping of shishkabob.

plural bobs

1. computer graphicsA graphical element, resembling a hardware sprite, that can be blitted around the screen in large numbers.

   The bob list determines the drawing priority […]

   1986, Eugene P Mortimore, Amiga programmer's handbook, Volumes 1-2

   2 more examples

   IMHO, youd ^([sic]) be better doing other things with the CPU and letting the blitter draw bobs, esp on a machine with fast ram.

   1995, John Girvin, “Blitting bobs”, in comp.sys.amiga.programmer (Usenet)

   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

   2002, demoeffects, “Demotized 0.0.1 - A collection of demo effects from the early days of the demo scene.”, in fm.announce (Usenet)

plural BOBs

1. humorousVibrator (device designed to stimulate a woman's genitals).

1. not comparablehobbiesBack-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.

1. abbreviationacronymuncountableAcronym of bur oak blight (“a fungal disease of plants”).

plural BOBs

1. abbreviationacronymdivingAcronym of bailout bottle.

plural Bobs

1. A diminutive of the male given name Robert.

   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.

   2009 April 25, “Meet Number 16 Bus Shelter”, in Austin Daily Herald, archived from the original on 20 Jul 2025

   1 more example

   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.

   2005 March 30, “Miramax founders leave Disney”, in The Guardian

2. computingThe 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.

   2003, Matt Bishop, Computer Security: Art and Science, Addison-Wesley Professional, →ISBN, page 247

   Synonyms: Party B

3. euphemisticGod.

plural Bobs

1. A generic male person.

   It's so simple, even Bob from accounting could do it.

   Synonyms: Jack, Joe