[Used since the 16th (? 14th) c. Apparently onomatopæic, expressing short jerking or rebounding motion. There is an obvious association with certain senses of BOB sb.1, esp. those of the ball of a pendulum, plummet, tassel, pendant, all of which ‘bob’ when moved; but it is doubtful whether this is original or subsequent. There is also contact with the senses of BOB v.2]
1. intr. To move up and down like a buoyant body in water, or an elastic body on land; hence, to dance; to move to and fro with a similar motion, esp. said of hanging things rebounding from objects lightly struck by them.
[1386. Chaucer, Manciples Prol., 2. A litel toun, which that ycleped is Bobbe up and down Vnder the Blee in Caunterbury weye.]
a. 1550. Christis Kirke Gr., vi. Platefute he bobit up with bendis, For Mald he made requiest.
1611. Coryat, Crudities, 64. Many tassels bobbing about.
1623. Cockeram, III. Tantalus … hath Apples bobbing at his nose.
1719. D’Urfey, Pills (1872), II. 271. The fruit was bobbing at his chin.
1794. Herschel, in Phil. Trans., LXXXV. 54. Solid bodies bobbing up and down in a fiery liquid.
1830. Gentl. Mag., Jan., 49/2. With what consummate craft he bobbed in and out, as to office.
1858. Hawthorne, Fr. & It. Jrnls. (1872), II. 164. A postilion … bobbing up and down on the offhorse.
1872. Black, Adv. Phaeton, ix. A bottle bobbing about in the sea.
b. To bob for apples, cherries, etc.: to snatch with the mouth at apples, or other fruit, floating on water, or dangling from a string, the fruit in either case generally eluding the mouth of the would-be captor.
1823. Lamb, Lett., xviii. 175. No. 92 may bob it as she likes but she catches no cherry of me.
1858. Sat. Rev., 31 July, 98. Like a schoolboy who fruitlessly bobs in the tub of water after the apple.
2. intr. To move up or down with a bob or slight jerk; spec. curtsy. Also, with cognate obj., To bob a curtsy.
a. 1794. Old Song, When she cam ben she bobbit.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, i. Bobbing, and curtseying and smiling.
1873. Black, Pr. Thule, x. 156. The servant … bobbed curtsey to her.
Mod. He bobbed down, and the stone missed him. The end of the pole bobbed up and struck me.
3. trans. To move (a thing) up or down with a bob or slight jerk. Cf. BOB v.2 4.
1685. Abridgm. Eng. Mil. Discip., 67. Take care not to bob up the Spear of your Pike.
1818. Keats, Endym., I. 291. Dolphins bob their noses through the brine.
1845. Darwin, Voy. Nat., iii. (1879), 56. The Carrancha takes little notice, except by bobbing its head.
4. Comb. (sbs.), as bob-apple, a game in which children bob for apples, either floating in water, or suspended; bob-cherry, a game in which the player tries to catch with his teeth a cherry suspended at the end of a string; † bob-chin, one who bobs his chin; bob-fly, in angling, a second artificial fly that bobs on the surface of the water, to indicate the position of the end-fly; † bob-wood, a bob or float used with a harpoon.
1681. Reply Mischief of Imposit., 2. To see their Children play at *Bob-apple.
1714. Arbuthnot, etc., Martinus Scribl., v. (1756), 24. *Bob-cherry … teaches at once two noble virtues, patience and constancy.
1885. Pall Mall Gaz., 15 July, 10. Lord Robert Montagu … described Government, upon the question of Reform, as ‘playing at bob-cherry with the nation.’
1614. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair. Keepe it during the Fayre, *Bobchin.
1832. E. Jesse, Gleanings Nat. Hist., Ser. I. 300. You can easily find the *bob-fly on the top of the water, and thus be sure that the end-fly is not far off.
1883. J. Hay, in Century Mag., 378/1. He looped on for dropper or bob-fly, a ‘Lord Baltimore.’
1697. Dampier, New Voy. (1699), I. 35. At the other end of his staff [for a Harpoon] there is a light piece of wood called *Bob-wood, with a hole in it, through which the small end of the staff comes.
