[(Two or more words) f. BOB v.3, 4 + -ER1.]
1. He who or that which bobs up and down or in and out; spec. a float used in angling, also the bob-fly (see BOB v.3 4).
1837. Lockhart, Life Scott (1839), IX. 247. To catch one trout … with the fly and another with the bobber.
1881. Harper’s Mag., Oct., 654. You can see the bobber dance upon the ripples.
2. One who bobs for eels. (In East Anglia called babber.)
1882. Blackw. Mag., Jan., 99. The bunch of worms strung on worsted with which the eel-babber works.
1883. G. C. Davies, Norfolk Broads [see BOB sb.1 7].
3. dial. and slang. A fellow-workman, mate or ‘chum.’ Cf. BOB sb.7
1860. W. White, Round Wrekin, 34. Bobber being the equivalent of chum.
1871. Daily News, 19 May, 5/3. As he sells these, the buyers or their ‘bobbers’ carry them off.
