[Of unknown origin: Ir. baban tassel, cluster, Gael. baban, babag, have been compared. Some of the senses are from BOB v.1]
1. A bunch or cluster (of leaves, flowers, fruit, etc.). north. Still in Scotland the name for a bunch, nosegay, or small bouquet of flowers.
c. 1340. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 206. In his on honde he hadde a holyn bobbe.
c. 1400. MS. Lincoln A. i. 17. f. 42 (Halliw.). With wondere grete bobbis of grapes, for a mane myȝte unnethez bere ane of them.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., 118. A bob of cherys.
1483. Cath. Angl., 36. A Bob of grapys, botrus.
a. 1548. Thrie Priests Peblis, 21 (Jam.). The King the bob of birkis can wave.
1570. Levins, Manip. A bobbe of leaves, frondetum. A bob of flowers, floretum.
1807. Hogg, Mount. Bard, 198 (Jam.). The rose an hawthorn sweet Ill twine, To make a bobb for thee.
Mod. Sc. To gather a bob of primroses.
† 2. A rounded mass or lump at the end of a rod or the like; a knob. Obs. in general sense.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 252. [Lobsters] hornes haue a round point or bob at the end.
1627. Capt. Smith, Seamans Gram., xiv. 66. A Rammer is a bob of wood at the other end to ramme home the Powder.
a. 1659. Osborn, Misc. (1673), 589. Instead of an unsightly Bob, to form a sharp comely Bone.
b. spec. The weight at the end of a pendulum.
1752. Phil. Trans., XLVII. 519. A pendulum at the end of which is the bob or weight.
1828. Hutton, Course Math., II. 222. A portable pendulum, made of painted tape with a brass bob at the end.
1862. H. Spencer, First Princ., II. xvii. § 139. A pendulum though unaffected in its movements by a change in the weight of the bob, alters its rate of oscillation when taken to the equator.
c. The plummet or weight on a plumb-line; the shifting weight on the graduated arm of a steel-yard (dial.); a beam or other oscillating part in a pumping engine (dial.).
1832. Mrs. Opie, in Life (1854), 288. There is here the largest steam engine, perhaps, in Europe; when I entered the room, I went up to see the immense beam or bob.
1867. Denison, Astron. without Math., 16. Seeing how much the plumb bob is pulled aside by the attraction of a mountain.
1881. Raymond, Mining Gloss., Bob (Cornwall), a triangular frame, by means of which the horizontal motion imparted from an engine is transformed into a vertical motion of the pump-rods in a shaft.
† 3. An ornamental pendant; an ear-drop. Obs.
1648. Gage, West Ind., xii. (1655), 57. Their bare brests are covered with bobs hanging from their chaines of pearls.
1733. Fielding, Quixote in Eng., I. iv. Two bobs that my wife wears in her ears.
1734. Mrs. Delany, Life & Corr., I. 432. A green diamond to hang as a bob to her necklace.
1773. Goldsm., Stoops to Conq., III. i. My cousin Cons necklaces, bobs, and all.
4. A knot or bunch of hair such as that in which women sometimes do up their back hair; also, a short bunch or tassel-like curl: cf. bob-curl. Hence (b.) bob-peruke, -periwig, -wig, a wig having the bottom locks turned up into bobs or short curls, as opposed to a full-bottomed wig; often (c.) abbreviated to bob.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. xviii. § 118. 463. A Peruque with a Curled Foretop, and Bobs. This is a kind of Travelling Wig, having the side or bottom locks turned up into Bobs or Knots, tied up with Ribbons. Ibid. A Campaign Wig, hath Knots or Bobs (or a Dildo on each side) with a Curled Forehead.
Mod. The old lady has her hair twisted up in a bob.
b. 1685. Lond. Gaz., No. 2076/4. John Rixon wears a light bob Wigg. Ibid. (1686), No. 2175/4. A light coloured close Coat and a brownish Bob-Periwig.
1688. Shadwell, Sqr. Alsatia, II. i. 36. Bob peruke.
1753. Scots Mag., Oct., 490/2. I procured a brown bob perriwig.
1840. Dickens, Barn. Rudge, 12/1. His three-cornered hat and bob-wig.
c. 1688. R. Holme, Armoury, 463. A short Bobb, a Head of Hair, is a Wig that hath short locks, and a hairy Crown.
1704. Steele, Lying Lover, IV. (1747), 56. What shall I do for Powder for this smart Bob?
1752. Foote, Taste, I. i. 17. Let your Bob be bushy, and your Bow low.
1815. Mar. Edgeworth, Patron. (1832), I. xx. 339. A decent powdered doctors bob.
5. A horses tail docked short; a short knob-like tail.
1711. Lond. Gaz., No. 4934/4. A high bob unusual in Horses.
1721. Dudley, Moose-Deer, in Phil. Trans., XXXI. 166. He has a very short Bob for a Tail.
6. A knob, knot, or bunch of colored yarn, ribbons or the like; a weight on the tail of a kite.
1761. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, III. xxix. 142. An old chair fringed around with worsted bobs.
1837. Hogg, Ettrick Sheph. T., III. 265. Capering with her bobbs of crimson ribbons.
1849. Lowell, Biglow P., Wks. (1879), 165. To delay attaching the bobs until the second attempt at flying the kite.
1861. Ramsay, Remin., II. 121. A broad Scottish blue bonnet, with a red bob on the top.
7. A bunch of lob-worms threaded on pieces of worsted, somewhat like a small mop, used to catch eels. Called in East Anglia a bab or clod.
1660. Hexham, Dutch Dict., Peuren, to take Eeles in the night with a bob of wormes.
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agric. (1681), 260. When you perceive by moving of your Bob, that the Eels do tug at it.
1882. Blackw. Mag., Jan., 99. It is only occasionally it takes the bab, the bunch of worms strung on worsted with which the eel-babber works.
1883. G. C. Davies, Norfolk Broads, xxxi. (1884), 243. The babber sits in his boat through the night, with a short rod in each hand, and every now and then lifts the bab a little.
8. A small roundish or knob-like body: † a. A seed vessel of flax or other plants (obs.). b. A lump or nodule of clay used by potters.
1615. Markham, Eng. Housew., II. v. (1668), 132. The round bells or bobs which contain the seed [of flax].
1679. Plot, Staffordsh. (1686), 124. Pieces of clay called Bobbs for the ware to stand on, to keep it from sticking to the Shragers.
1725. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Hemp, Breaking off from the stalks, the round bells or Bobbs that contain the seed.
1866. Howells, Venet. Life, iii. 35. A small pot of glazed earthen-ware having an earthen bob.
† 9. An insect: a. The grub or larva of a beetle used as bait for fish. b. A beetle: chiefly in comb., as black-bob, blind-bob (also fig.). Obs. or dial.
1589. Pasquils Ret., D iiij. It is neither losse of liuing nor life, nor so blind a bob as Blind Asse, that will scare a Caualiero.
a. 1613. J. Dennys, Angling, in Arb., Garner, I. 176. Yellow bobs turned up before the plough are chiefest baits.
1653. Walton, Angler, 62. A Bob which you will find [under cow-dung] and in time will be a beetle.
1713. Lond. & Country Brewer, IV. (1743), 259. A further Account of the Wevil . At Winchester, they call this Insect, Pope, Black-bob, or Creeper.
1787. Best, Angling (ed. 2), 19. Bobs are worms as big as two maggots, have red heads.
1790. G. White, Selborne (Blatta orientalis), Her house was overrun with a kind of black beetle, or as she expressed herself with a kind of black-bob [cockroach].
1792. Osbaldiston, Brit. Sportsm., 662. All sorts of worms are better for being kept, except earth-bobs.
10. Comb., as bob-curl, ? a short curl like a tassel; bob-jerom, a bobwig; bob-pendulum, -balance, a pendulum or balance with a bob or bobs; bob-periwig, -peruke, -wig: see 4. See also BOB-TAIL.
1685. Lond. Gaz., No. 2017/18. A large Gold Watch with a Steel Chain and a Bob Pendulum. Ibid. (1701), No. 3710/4. Stolen 2 Silver Minute bob Pendulum Watches. Ibid. (1701), No. 3717/4. Lost a Silver Pendulum Minute Watch with a Bob Ballance.
1782. Miss Burney, Cecilia, IX. i. (D.). To suppose a young lady of fortune would marry a man with a bob jerom.
1867. Miss Broughton, Cometh up as Fl. xi. 106. Mamma in a sad coloured gown, with bob curls.
II. 11. The refrain or burden of a song (? as if a pendant to each stanza). To bear a bob: to take up the refrain, join in the chorus.
1606. Choice, Chance, etc. (1881), 69. Can beare the Bob, while other play and sing.
1692. LEstrange, Fables, 283 (1708), I. 299. To Bed, to Bed will be the Bob of the Song.
1752. Fielding, Amelia, Wks. 1775, XI. 121. Well sing it next Sunday at St. Jamess Church, and Ill bear a bob.
1788. Lond. Mag., 398. The real ass bore a-bob in the chorus.
b. (In modern writers) The short line (often of 2 syllables only) at the end of the stanza in some old forms of versification; sometimes it introduces rhyming lines in a distinct measure, called the WHEEL.
1838. Guest, Eng. Rhythms (1882), 573. The bob is a very short and abrupt wheel or burthen. Ibid., 620. Of all the wheels known to our language, the most important are those fashioned on the bob, that is on the short and abrupt wheel, which came into fashion during the 12th and 13th centuries. Ibid., 621. The simplest kind of bob-wheel consists of the bob, and a long verse following, and riming with it.
1842. Robson, Three Metr. Romances, Introd. p. xix. The short line, or, in technical language, the bob, which (in the Pistil of Swete Susane,) introduces the wheel, is lengthened out into a full alliterative verse.