What does "bob" mean?
A bobbing motion; a quick up and down movement.
Bob
/bɒb/ adj, name, noun, verb, slang
adj, name, noun, verb, slang ·Very common ·Middle school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: A bobbing motion; a quick up and down movement.
- Grammar: bob is listed as adj, name, noun, verb, slang.
- Nearest alternatives: abbreviate, abridge, abscind, abstract.
- Useful contrasts: extend, grow, lengthen.
- Usage evidence: Records certify that Bob passed his driving test.
How to use "bob"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "bob" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "bob" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "bob" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "bob" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "bob" is acting as adj, name, noun, verb, slang in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "abbreviate" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "bob", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A bobbing motion; a quick up and down movement.
"a bob of the head"
- 2 A bob haircut.
- 3 A shilling. Australia, Kenya, New-Zealand, UK, dated, historical, slang
"One of the bottlenosed fraternity it was went by the name of James Wought alias Saphiro alias Spark and Spiro, put an ad in the papers saying he'd give a passage to Canada for twenty bob."
- 4 Clipping of shishkabob. abbreviation, alt-of, clipping
- 5 A graphical element, resembling a hardware sprite, that can be blitted around the screen in large numbers.
"The bob list determines the drawing priority […]"
Show 28 more definitions
- 6 Vibrator (device designed to stimulate a woman's genitals). humorous
- 7 Acronym of bur oak blight (“a fungal disease of plants”). abbreviation, acronym, alt-of, uncountable
- 8 A generic male person.
- 9 a short abrupt inclination (as of the head) wordnet
- 10 A curtsy.
- 11 Any round object attached loosely to a flexible line, a rod, a body part etc., so that it may swing when hanging from it.
"Ecod! I have got them. Here they are. My cousin Con's necklaces, bobs and all."
- 12 A 10-cent coin, ten cents. Australia, dated, slang
- 13 a short or shortened tail of certain animals wordnet
- 14 A bobber (buoyant fishing device).
"Or yellow bobs turn’d up before the plough / Are chiefest baits, with cork and lead enough."
- 15 The dangling mass of a pendulum or plumb line.
- 16 An unspecified amount of money. slang
"Spot me a few bob, Robert."
- 17 a small float usually made of cork; attached to a fishing line wordnet
- 18 Any of various hesperiid butterflies.
- 19 The docked tail of a horse.
- 20 a hanging weight, especially a metal ball on a string wordnet
- 21 The short runner of a sled.
- 22 a long racing sled (for 2 or more people) with a steering mechanism wordnet
- 23 A bobsleigh.
- 24 a hair style for women and children; a short haircut all around wordnet
- 25 A small wheel, made of leather, with rounded edges, used in polishing spoons, etc.
- 26 a former monetary unit in Great Britain wordnet
- 27 A working beam in a steam engine.
- 28 A particular style of ringing changes on bells.
- 29 A blow; a shake or jog; a rap, as with the fist.
- 30 A knot or short curl of hair; also, a bob wig. obsolete
"A plain brown bob he wore."
- 31 The refrain of a song. obsolete
"Ay, Ay, and Then to Bed, ſays the Bride. This Girl did but ſpeak the Widows Mind; for let Fleſh and Blood pretend what it will, to Bed, to Bed, will be the Bob of the Song."
- 32 A short line ending a stanza of a poem.
- 33 A jeer; a sharp jest or taunt. obsolete
"Hee, that a Foole doth very wiſely hit, Doth very fooliſhly, although he ſmart, Seeme ſenſeleſſe of the bob."
Verb
- 1 To move gently and vertically, in either a single motion or repeatedly up and down, at or near the surface of a body of water, or similar medium. intransitive
"The cork bobbed gently in the calm water."
- 2 To cut (hair) into a bob haircut. transitive
"I got my hair bobbed. How do you like it?"
- 3 cut hair in the style of a bob wordnet
- 4 To move (something) as though it were bobbing in water. transitive
"I bobbed my head underwater and saw the goldfish."
- 5 To shorten by cutting; to dock; to crop. transitive
Show 9 more definitions
- 6 make a curtsy; usually done only by girls and women; as a sign of respect wordnet
- 7 To move (something) as though it were bobbing in water.; To perform oral sex on someone. transitive, with-on
"She bobbed on his knob."
- 8 To bobsleigh.
- 9 remove or shorten the tail of an animal wordnet
- 10 To curtsy.
- 11 move up and down repeatedly in a quick, short movement wordnet
- 12 To strike with a quick, light blow; to tap.
"And if any man hapned, by longe sittynge, to slepe, or, by any other countenance, to shewe him selfe to be weary, he was sodaynly bobbed on the face by the seruantes of Nero, […]"
- 13 ride a bobsled wordnet
- 14 Synonym of blob (“catch eels using worms strung on thread”). intransitive
"After they had had supper Frank said, Do you remember those men whom we saw near Norwich, who sat in small boats all the night long, and with a line in each hand, bobbed for eels?"
Adjective
- 1 Back-of-the-book; denoting those stamps in a catalogue that are not used for the payment of regular postage fees, and are displayed separately in the catalogue after that listing; the division between these two groups varies with the publisher. not-comparable
Proper Noun
- 1 A diminutive of the male given name Robert.
"Miramax Films cofounders Bob and Harvey Weinstein will end their successful, but often tumultuous, 12-year relationship with The Walt Disney Company to launch their own media company."
- 2 The person or system receiving a message or signal from a source conventionally known as Alice.
"The key that Alice and Bob are to share cannot be transmitted in the clear. Either it must be enciphered when sent, or Alice and Bob must derive it without an exhange of data from which the key can be derived."
Example
"Records certify that Bob passed his driving test."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "bob"?
Common synonyms include: abbreviate, abridge, abscind, abstract, accost, address.
How do you use "bob" in a sentence?
Records certify that Bob passed his driving test.
How do you pronounce "bob"?
Pronounced /bɒb/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
From Middle English bobben (“to strike, beat, shake, jog”), of uncertain origin. Compare Scots bob (“to mark, dance with a bobbing motion”), Icelandic boppa (“to wave up and down”), Swedish bobba (“to bob”), Dutch dobberen ("bobbing").
Etymology 2
From Middle English bobbe (“a cluster (of fruit); a twig with its leaves, a spray”), perhaps of Celtic origin (compare Irish baban "tassel, cluster," Gaelic babag).
Etymology 3
Blend of blitter object.
Etymology 4
Acronym of battery-operated boyfriend, fortuitously spelling out the male given name Bob in the case of the humorous colloquial definition.
Etymology 5
Acronym of back of the book.
Etymology 6
Probably from a medieval hypocorism of Rob.