bob

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See also: Bob, BOB, bób, and böb

English[edit]

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

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").

Verb[edit]

bob (third-person singular simple present bobs, present participle bobbing, simple past and past participle bobbed)

  1. (intransitive) 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. (transitive) To move (something) as though it were bobbing in water.
    I bobbed my head underwater and saw the goldfish.
    bob one's head (= to nod)
  3. To curtsy.
  4. To strike with a quick, light blow; to tap.
  5. (intransitive) Synonym of blob (“catch eels using worms strung on thread”)
    • 1876, George Christopher Davies, The Swan and Her Crew, page 134:
      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?
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]

Noun[edit]

bob (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).
  4. Any of various hesperiid butterflies.
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
bobber — see float
curtsey — see curtsey

Etymology 2[edit]

From Middle English bobbe (“a cluster (of fruit); a twig with its leaves, a spray”).

Noun[edit]

bob (plural bobs)

  1. A bob haircut.
  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.
  3. The dangling mass of a pendulum or plumb line.
  4. The docked tail of a horse.
  5. A short line ending a stanza of a poem.
  6. The short runner of a sled.
  7. A bobsleigh.
  8. A small wheel, made of leather, with rounded edges, used in polishing spoons, etc.
  9. A working beam in a steam engine.
  10. A particular style of ringing changes on bells.
  11. A blow; a shake or jog; a rap, as with the fist.
  12. (obsolete) A knot or short curl of hair; also, a bob wig.
  13. (obsolete) The refrain of a song.
  14. (obsolete) A jeer; a sharp jest or taunt.
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]

Verb[edit]

bob (third-person singular simple present bobs, present participle bobbing, simple past and past participle bobbed)

  1. (transitive) To cut (hair) into a bob haircut.
    I got my hair bobbed. How do you like it?
  2. (transitive) To shorten by cutting; to dock; to crop.
  3. To bobsleigh.
Translations[edit]

Etymology 3[edit]

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun[edit]

bob (plural bob or (rare) bobs)

  1. (Kenya, slang; UK and Australia, historical, dated) A shilling.
    • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 12: Cyclops]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 308:
      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.
    • 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:
      “’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.”
    • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XVII, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:
      […] 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, […]
  2. (Australia, dated slang) A 10-cent coin.
  3. (slang) An unspecified amount of money.
    Spot me a few bob, Robert.
    I could have saved myself a few bob buying it somewhere else.
    • 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:
      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.
    • 1964, Len Deighton, “Tuesday, November 5th”, in Funeral in Berlin, New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, published 1965, →LCCN, page 294:
      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.”
Usage notes[edit]
  • The use of bob for shilling is dated slang in the UK and Australia, since decimalisation. In East African countries where the currency is the shilling, it is current usage, and not considered slang. OED gives first usage as 1789.
  • The use of bob to describe a 10-cent coin is derived from the fact that it was of equal worth to a shilling during decimalisation, however since then, the term has slowly dropped out of usage and is seldom used today.
Derived terms[edit]

Etymology 4[edit]

Noun[edit]

bob (plural bobs)

  1. Abbreviation of shishkabob.

Etymology 5[edit]

blitter object

Noun[edit]

bob (plural bobs)

  1. (computer graphics, demoscene) A graphical element, resembling a hardware sprite, that can be blitted around the screen in large numbers.
    • 1986, Eugene P Mortimore, Amiga programmer's handbook, Volumes 1-2:
      The bob list determines the drawing priority […]
    • 1995, John Girvin, “Blitting bobs”, in comp.sys.amiga.programmer (Usenet):
      IMHO, youd [sic] be better doing other things with the CPU and letting the blitter draw bobs, esp on a machine with fast ram.
    • 2002, demoeffects, “Demotized 0.0.1 - A collection of demo effects from the early days of the demo scene.”, in fm.announce (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
Derived terms[edit]

See also[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

Dutch[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

From bewust onbeschonken bestuurder (“deliberately unintoxicated driver”).

Noun[edit]

bob m (plural bobs, diminutive bobje n)

  1. designated driver

Etymology 2[edit]

Borrowed from English bob.

Noun[edit]

bob f or m (plural bobs)

  1. (winter sports) bob, bobsleigh
    Synonym: bobslee

French[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

From the English personal name Bob, used to designate light infantrymen, and probably introduced into French during the First World War.

Noun[edit]

bob m (plural bobs)

  1. bucket hat, fishing hat

Etymology 2[edit]

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun[edit]

bob m (plural bobs)

  1. (Belgium) designated driver, DD

Further reading[edit]

Hungarian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): [ˈbob]
  • Hyphenation: bob
  • Rhymes: -ob

Noun[edit]

bob (plural bobok)

  1. bobsleigh
  2. a type of sled (a flat-bottomed concave plastic sled with no runners, equipped with brakes)
  3. a car used on the track of an alpine slide or bobsled rollercoaster (mountain coaster)

Declension[edit]

Inflection (stem in -o-, back harmony)
singular plural
nominative bob bobok
accusative bobot bobokat
dative bobnak boboknak
instrumental bobbal bobokkal
causal-final bobért bobokért
translative bobbá bobokká
terminative bobig bobokig
essive-formal bobként bobokként
essive-modal — —
inessive bobban bobokban
superessive bobon bobokon
adessive bobnál boboknál
illative bobba bobokba
sublative bobra bobokra
allative bobhoz bobokhoz
elative bobból bobokból
delative bobról bobokról
ablative bobtól boboktól
non-attributive
possessive - singular 		bobé boboké
non-attributive
possessive - plural 		bobéi bobokéi
Possessive forms of bob
possessor single possession multiple possessions
1st person sing. bobom bobjaim
2nd person sing. bobod bobjaid
3rd person sing. bobja bobjai
1st person plural bobunk bobjaink
2nd person plural bobotok bobjaitok
3rd person plural bobjuk bobjaik

Synonyms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Compound words

Further reading[edit]

  • bob in Ittzés, Nóra (ed.). A magyar nyelv nagyszótára (‘A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2006–2031 (work in progress; published A–ez as of 2024)

Irish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun[edit]

bob m (genitive singular bob, nominative plural bobanna)

  1. (hair) bob
    1. fringe (of hair over forehead)
    2. bob(tail)
      Synonym: bob eireabaill

Derived terms[edit]

Noun[edit]

bob m (genitive singular bob, nominative plural bobanna)

  1. stump, target (in games)

Declension[edit]

Declension of bob

Fourth declension

Bare forms

Case Singular Plural
Nominative bob bobanna
Vocative a bhob a bhobanna
Genitive bob bobanna
Dative bob bobanna

Forms with the definite article

Case Singular Plural
Nominative an bob na bobanna
Genitive an bhob na mbobanna
Dative leis an mbob

don bhob

leis na bobanna

Derived terms[edit]

Mutation[edit]

Irish mutation
Radical Lenition Eclipsis
bob bhob mbob
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

References[edit]

Italian[edit]

Italian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia it

Etymology[edit]

Pseudo-anglicism, a clipping of English bobsled.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

bob m (invariable)

  1. bobsleigh / bobsled

Related terms[edit]

Lower Sorbian[edit]

bob

Etymology[edit]

From Proto-Slavic *bobъ, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰabʰ-. Cognate with Upper Sorbian bob, Polish bób, Czech bob, Russian боб (bob), Serbo-Croatian bȍb.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

bob m inan

  1. (uncountable) bean plant
  2. beanfield

Declension[edit]

Declension of bob
Singular Dual Plural
Nominative bob boba boby
Genitive boba bobowu bobow
Dative boboju boboma bobam
Accusative bob boba boby
Instrumental bobom boboma bobami
Locative bobje boboma bobach

Derived terms[edit]

  • bobowka f (“an individual bean seed”)

See also[edit]

Further reading[edit]

  • Muka, Arnošt (1921, 1928) “bob”, in Słownik dolnoserbskeje rěcy a jeje narěcow (in German), St. Petersburg, Prague: ОРЯС РАН, ČAVU; Reprinted Bautzen: Domowina-Verlag, 2008
  • Starosta, Manfred (1999) “bob”, in Dolnoserbsko-nimski słownik / Niedersorbisch-deutsches Wörterbuch (in German), Bautzen: Domowina-Verlag

Portuguese[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

bob m (plural bobes)

  1. curler (small cylindrical tube)
  2. hair roller, hair curler

Romanian[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

Borrowed from Serbo-Croatian bȍb.

Noun[edit]

bob n (plural boabe)

  1. a type of bean, field bean, horse bean, broad bean
  2. a grain
  3. any seed, pit, stone, berry
Declension[edit]
Declension of bob
singular plural
indefinite articulation definite articulation indefinite articulation definite articulation
nominative/accusative (un) bob bobul (niște) boabe boabele
genitive/dative (unui) bob bobului (unor) boabe boabelor
vocative bobule boabelor
Related terms[edit]

See also[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

Borrowed from English bobsleigh.

Noun[edit]

bob n (plural boburi)

  1. bobsleigh
Declension[edit]
Declension of bob
singular plural
indefinite articulation definite articulation indefinite articulation definite articulation
nominative/accusative (un) bob bobul (niște) boburi boburile
genitive/dative (unui) bob bobului (unor) boburi boburilor
vocative bobule boburilor

See also[edit]

Scots[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

From Middle English bobbe (“cluster of fruit; spray of leaves”).[1]

Noun[edit]

bob (plural bobs)

  1. a bunch, a cluster (of things)
  2. (obsolete) a nosegay, bunch of flowers
  3. a knot; a bunch of ribbon
  4. a patch of rich grass

Verb[edit]

bob (third-person singular simple present bobs, present participle bobbin, simple past bobbit, past participle bobbit)

  1. (of grass) to grow richly in patches

Etymology 2[edit]

Uncertain. Possibly onomatopoeic expressing quick movement,[2] but compare English bob, above.[3]

Noun[edit]

bob (plural bobs)

  1. a dance

Verb[edit]

bob (third-person singular simple present bobs, present participle bobbin, simple past bobbit, past participle bobbit)

  1. to dance with up-and-down movement
    Synonym: bab

Etymology 3[edit]

Unknown. Possibly from Middle English bobben (“to strike”) or Old French bober, baubir (“to mock, deride”).[4]

Noun[edit]

bob (plural bobs)

  1. a target, a mark to aim at
  2. a taunt

References[edit]

  1. ^ “bob, n.1” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.
  2. ^ “bob, n.2” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.
  3. ^ “bab, v.” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.
  4. ^ “bob, n.3” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.

Serbo-Croatian[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *bobъ.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

bȍb m (Cyrillic spelling бо̏б)

  1. broad bean
  2. horse bean
Declension[edit]
Declension of bob
singular plural
nominative bob bobovi
genitive boba bobova
dative bobu bobovima
accusative bob bobove
vocative bobe bobovi
locative bobu bobovima
instrumental bobom bobovima

Etymology 2[edit]

From English bob.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

bȍb m (Cyrillic spelling бо̏б)

  1. bobsled
Declension[edit]
Declension of bob
singular plural
nominative bȍb bòbovi
genitive boba bobova
dative bobu bobovima
accusative bob bobove
vocative bobe bobovi
locative bobu bobovima
instrumental bobom bobovima

Sicilian[edit]

Sicilian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia scn

Noun[edit]

bob m

  1. bobsleigh / bobsled

Spanish[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /ˈbob/ [ˈboβ̞]
  • Rhymes: -ob
  • Syllabification: bob

Noun[edit]

bob m (plural bobs)

  1. bob, bob haircut (hairstyle)

Welsh[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

bob

  1. Soft mutation of pob.

Mutation[edit]

Welsh mutation
radical soft nasal aspirate
pob bob mhob phob
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.
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