OFF LIKE BOB’S-HORSE; phr. (nautical).—See quot.
1836. R. H. DANA, Jr., Two Years Before the Mast, 239. Going off to sea again, leaving his wife half pay, like a fool, coming home and finding her ‘OFF, LIKE BOB’S HORSE, WITH NOBODY TO PAY THE RECKONING’; furniture gone,—flag-bottomed chairs and all;—and with it, his ‘long togs,’ the half pay, his beaver hat, white linen shirts, and everything else.
