Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To strike; beat.
  • To jog; shake; nudge.
  • To cause a short jerky motion of; effect by a short jerking movement: as, “he bobbed his head,”
  • To cut short; dock: often with off: as, to bob or bob off a horse's tail.
  • To act jerkily, or by short quick motions; move or play loosely, in a swaying or vibrating manner: as, to bob against a person; to bob up and down, or back and forth, as a pith-ball or other object, or a person.
  • To make a jerky bow or obeisance.
  • To dance.
  • To angle or fish with a bob, as for eels, or by giving the hook a jerking motion in the water.
  • noun A shake or jog; a blow: as, “pinches, nips, and bobs,” Ascham, The Scholemaster.
  • noun A taunt; a jeer or flout; a trick.
  • noun A louse; any small insect.
  • To mock; deride; insult.
  • To deceive; delude; cheat.
  • To gain by fraud or cheating.
  • noun A piece of clay placed beneath a vessel in a kiln. An old English name for bat, 13 .
  • To transport (a load, as of logs) on a bob or sled.
  • noun A bunch; a cluster; a nosegay.
  • noun The seed-vessel of flax, hops, etc.
  • noun Any small round object swinging or playing loosely at the end of a cord, line, flexible chain, wire, rod, or the like. Specifically— A little pendant or ornament so attached; an ear-drop.
  • noun The ball or weight at the end of a pendulum, plumbline, and the like.
  • noun The movable weight on the graduated arm of a steelyard.
  • noun A knot of worms, rags, or other lures, fixed to a string, with or without a hook, and used in angling.
  • noun Formerly, a grub or larva of a beetle used for bait.
  • noun A gang of fish-hooks.
  • noun A float or cork for a fish-line.
  • noun A small wheel made entirely of a thick piece of bull-neck or sea-cow leather, perforated for the reception of the spindle, used for polishing the inside of the bowls of spoons and the concave portions of other articles.
  • noun The words repeated at the end of a stanza; the burden of a song.
  • noun A short jerking action or motion: as, a bob of the head.
  • noun In change-ringing, a set of changes which may be rung on 6, 8, 10, or 12 bells.
  • noun A triangular or four-sided frame of iron or wood, vibrating on an axis, by the aid of which the motion of the connecting-rod of an engine is communicated to a pump-rod, the former being usually horizontal, the latter vertical or considerably inclined.
  • noun A dance.
  • noun A particular kind of wig; a bob-wig.
  • noun A shilling. Formerly bobstick.
  • noun An infantry soldier: as, the light bobs: possibly so called because soldiers were enlisted in England with a shilling.
  • noun A seat mounted on short runners, used either for pleasure coasting or for the conveyance of loads over ice or snow; a sled.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To have a short, jerking motion; to play to and fro, or up and down; to play loosely against anything.
  • intransitive verb To angle with a bob. See Bob, n., 2 & 3.
  • intransitive verb to attempt to bite or seize with the mouth an apple, cherry, or other round fruit, while it is swinging from a string or floating in a tug of water.
  • transitive verb To cause to move in a short, jerking manner; to move (a thing) with a bob.
  • transitive verb To strike with a quick, light blow; to tap.
  • transitive verb To cheat; to gain by fraud or cheating; to filch.
  • transitive verb To mock or delude; to cheat.
  • transitive verb To cut short.
  • noun Anything that hangs so as to play loosely, or with a short abrupt motion, as at the end of a string; a pendant.
  • noun A knot of worms, or of rags, on a string, used in angling, as for eels; formerly, a worm suitable for bait.
  • noun A small piece of cork or light wood attached to a fishing line to show when a fish is biting; a float.
  • noun The ball or heavy part of a pendulum; also, the ball or weight at the end of a plumb line.
  • noun A small wheel, made of leather, with rounded edges, used in polishing spoons, etc.
  • noun A short, jerking motion; act of bobbing.

Etymologies

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