bob

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“
As long as the bob is angled, it won't make your face look to boxed in.

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Definitions (74)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (19)

  1. transitive verb To hit lightly and quickly; tap.
  2. transitive verb To cause to move up and down: bobbed my head in response to the question.
  3. intransitive verb To move up and down: a cork bobbing on the water.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (40)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (12)

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Examples (50)

  • But then sister Sara provides an autonomic combination foot-tap / head-bob, and your eyes glaze over to the mesmerizing groove. —  Independent Weekly: All Recent Stories
  • And as bob-bob asks, if they're going to go to the trouble to switch, why not Linux? —  Apple Matters
  • Sorry, bob-bob, that was a very loose comment about the "dozens of new viruses a day", so poor in fact, will go back and remove it. had this to say on Feb 11, 2009 Posts: 1040 —  Apple Matters
  • And bob, there is a difference between growth and expansion!
  • '' They even got £5million for me, and I am only worth about five bob, which is how silly it all was really. '' —  ESPNsoccernet
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This word has been looked up 152 times.

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Etymologies (10)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. Middle English bobben, to move up and down, probably ultimately of imitative origin.
  2. Middle English bobbe, cluster of fruit.
  3. Origin unknown.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (7)

  1. Under the form bob are included several words of obscure origin, mostly colloquial and without a definite literary history, and in consequence now more or less confused in sense as well as in form. The different senses, in their noun and verb uses, have reacted on each other, and cannot now be entirely disentangled. Bob, n., a cluster, etc., = Scots bob, bab, a cluster, bunch, nosegay, from Middle English bob, bobbc, a cluster; cf. Icelandic bobbi, a knot (nodus, Haldorsen), and Gaelic babag, a cluster, baban, a tassel, fringe. In senses 5, 6, 7, rather from bob, v. t., 1; in senses 10, 11, 13, bob is short for bob-wig, bob-stick, bob-sled, q. v.
  2. from bob, n., 3, from the vibrating movement; cf. Icelandic boppa, wave up and down. In sense I., 2, there is reference to the short, cutoff appearance of bobs. In sense II., 4, from bob, n., 3 (d) (e). This verb is probably in part vaguely imitative, and not directly connected with the noun.
  3. from Middle English bobben, strike. Origin obscure, perhaps in part imitative; cf. bob, v. Cf. Scots bob, a mark or butt.
  4. from bob, v.
  5. from Middle English bobben, from Old French bober, mock, deceive, cheat.
  6. from bob, v. Cf. Old French bobe, mocking, deception.
  7. from Middle English bobbe, an insect mentioned in connection with spiders and lice; = Swedish bobba, a certain insect, buprestis. Perhaps the same word as bob, a bunch, of which a dial. sense is ‘ball’; cf. attercop, a spider, literally ‘poison-head’ or ‘poison-bunch’; cf. also pill-beetle. Cf. Icelandic bobbi, a snail-shell; komast ī bobba, get into a puzzle.
 

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/bɑb/
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