Dobber
noun, slang ·Common ·Middle school level
Definitions
- 1 Alternative form of dauber (“marker pen used for bingo cards”). alt-of, alternative
"Said she wasn't going but she went still / Likes her gentlemen not to be gentle / Was it a Mecca dobber or a betting pencil?"
- 2 A member of the working class in Scotland or Ireland who is seen as undereducated, with poor taste, especially in clothes, and poor social skills. UK, derogatory
- 3 One who dobs (someone) (informs against them or implicates them to authority). Australia, UK, derogatory
"Nikki is such a dobber, she told the teacher that I hit Karen in the playground."
- 4 Any small electronic device that plugs directly into a larger one, such as a wireless scoring system in fencing or a USB mass storage device. British, informal
- 5 A large marble. British, Ireland, dialectal
"They were the biggest rosary beads I ever saw, the beads were the size of big marbles or dobbers or taws. Dobbers and taws we used to play with in the channels beside the footpaths, when we used to play the road games."
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- 6 A float (as used by an angler). US, regional
"In attaching this dobber or float, tie it on as short a tippet as you can manage and attach it to the leader from four to six feet above the nymph."
- 7 Spirit, pluck, self-esteem. US, broadly, figuratively, regional
"I went to the ballgame [in San Francisco] in April, and I was booed. I never was before that. It affected my dobber, my psyche."
- 8 A dabchick.
- 9 A part of a planter. rare
"Plate 17. The wheels of a potato planter which are adjustable on the axle to control row spacing, while the ‘dobbers’ may have their position adjusted around the slots in the wheels (Farmland Museum, Haddenham)"
- 10 A penis, especially a relatively large one. Ireland, Northern-England, Scotland, UK, especially, slang
"He puts a hand around it, tries to mind what it means, the having of a penis. Nothing's doing but. His dobber's no sure about it either, and the two of them dither there for a while, waiting for something to happen, a connection."
Example
More examples"Thus buoyed up, he floated on the waves like a merman, or like an angler's dobber, until he landed safely on a rock, where he was found the next morning busily drying his many breeches in the sunshine."
Related phrases
More for "dobber"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.