Obs. [ME. bobben, 14th c., a. OF. bobe-r to befool, mock, deceive; cf. Sp. bobo fool.]
1. trans. To make a fool of, deceive, cheat.
c. 1320. Seuyn Sages (W.), 2246. Tha bobbed the pie bi night.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Dominion, Wks. (1880), 291. Þe fend may hide mennes wittis & bobbe hem in here resoun.
c. 1430. Lydg., Min. Poems, 261. Bete and eek bobbid by fals illusioun.
1567. Turberv., Pretie Epigr. (R.). To play her prancks, and bob the foole the shrowish wife begon.
1612. Pasquil’s Night-Cap (1877), 70. I’le not be bob’d with such a slight excuse.
a. 1716. South, 12 Serm., III. 100. The Devil stands Bobbing and Tantalizing Men’s Gaping hopes with Some Preferment in Church, or State.
1725. Swift, Wood’s Petit., Wks. 1755, IV. I. 285. And so you may daintily bob him.
b. To bob of, out of: to cheat (out) of. To bob off: to get rid of by fraud.
1605. Tryall Chev., I. i. in Bullen, O. Pl., III. 273. I had rather dye in a ditch than be bobd of my fayre Thomasin.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., III. i. 75. You shall not bob vs out of our melody.
a. 1652. Brome, City Wit, III. iv. If you could bob me off with such payment.
1676. Packet Adv. Men of Shaftesbury, 8. Had I been bobb’d out of All.
c. To take by deception, to filch.
1604. Shaks., Oth., V. i. 16. Gold, and Iewels, that I bob’d from him.
2. To make sport of, mock, flout. Also intr. with to.
1382. Wyclif, 1 Esdr. i. 51. Thei weren bobbende his profetus. Ibid., Jer. xxxviii. 19. Thei bobbe to me [1388 thei scorn me].
3. Comb. † bob-fool, † bob-her, † bob and hit, names of games or forms of diversion; to play bob-fool with, to make a fool of, to befool. (But these may belong to BOB v.2)
1599. Greene, Alphonsus, Wks. 1831, II. 49. Do they think to play bobfool with me?
1611. Cotgr., Savate … the play called Bob and Hit, or Hodman Blind.
1631. [Mabbe], Celestina, XV. 162. Thou hast plai’d bob-foole with mee, by thy vaine and idle offers.
1702. Burlesque of R. Lestrange’s Vis. Quevedo, 269. Useful and skilful Knight at Bob-her.
