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• bob
  bob

  noun

  a short, jerky motion.
• Bob
  Bob

  noun

  a first name, form of Robert.

bob

¹ American  

[bob] / bɒb /

noun

1. a short, jerky motion.

   a bob of the head.

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verb (used with object)

bobbed, bobbing

1. to move quickly down and up.

   to bob the head.

2. to indicate with such a motion.

   to bob a greeting.

verb (used without object)

bobbed, bobbing

1. to make a jerky motion with the head or body.

2. to move about with jerky, usually rising and falling motions.

   The ball bobbed upon the waves.

verb phrase

1. bob up to emerge or appear, especially unexpectedly.

   A familiar face bobbed up in the crowd.

bob ² American  

[bob] / bɒb /

noun

1. a style of short haircut for women and children.

2. a docked horse's tail.

3. a dangling or terminal object, as the weight on a pendulum or a plumb line.

4. a short, simple line in a verse or song, especially a short refrain or coda.

5. Angling.

   1. a knot of worms, rags, etc., on a string.

   2. a float for a fishing line.

6. a bobsled or bob skate.

7. Scot. a bunch, cluster, or wad, especially a small bouquet of flowers.

8. Obsolete. walking beam.

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verb (used with object)

bobbed, bobbing

1. to cut short; dock.

   They bobbed their hair to be in style.

verb (used without object)

bobbed, bobbing

1. to try to snatch floating or dangling objects with the teeth.

   to bob for apples.

2. Angling. to fish with a bob.

bob ³ American  

[bob] / bɒb /

noun

1. a tap; light blow.

2. a polishing wheel of leather, felt, or the like.

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verb (used with object)

bobbed, bobbing

1. to tap; strike lightly.

bob ⁴ American  

[bob] / bɒb /

noun

British Informal.

bob plural

1. a shilling.

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Bob ⁵ American  

[bob] / bɒb /

noun

1. a first name, form of Robert.

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bob ¹ British  

/ bɒb /

verb

1. to move or cause to move up and down repeatedly, as while floating in water

2. to move or cause to move with a short abrupt movement, as of the head

3. to make (a bow or curtsy)

   the little girl bobbed before the visitor

4. to appear or emerge suddenly

5. (intr; foll by under, below, etc) to disappear suddenly, as beneath a surface

6. to attempt to get hold (of a floating or hanging object, esp an apple) in the teeth as a game

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noun

1. a short abrupt movement, as of the head

2. a quick curtsy or bow

3. Leisure:Bell-ringing a particular set of changes

4. angling

   1. short for bobfloat

   2. the topmost fly on a cast of three, often fished bobbing at the surface

   3. this position on a wet-fly cast

bob ² British  

/ bɒb /

noun

1. a hairstyle for women and children in which the hair is cut short evenly all round the head

2. a dangling or hanging object, such as the weight on a pendulum or on a plumb line

3. a polishing disc on a rotating spindle. It is usually made of felt, leather, etc, impregnated with an abrasive material

4. short for bob skate bobsleigh

5. a runner or pair of runners on a bobsled

6. angling a small knot of worms, maggots, etc, used as bait

7. a very short line of verse at the end of a stanza or preceding a rhyming quatrain (the wheel) at the end of a stanza

8. a refrain or burden with such a short line or lines

9. a docked tail, esp of a horse

10. dialect a hanging cluster, as of flowers or ribbons

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verb

1. (tr) to cut (the hair) in a bob

2. (tr) to cut short (something, esp the tail of an animal); dock or crop

3. (intr) to ride on a bobsled

bob ³ British  

/ bɒb /

verb

1. to tap or cause to tap or knock lightly (against)

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noun

1. a light knock; tap

Bob ⁴ British  

/ bɒb /

noun

1. slang everything is or will turn out all right

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bob ⁵ British  

/ bɒb /

noun

1. (formerly) an informal word for a shilling

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• bob
  plural

Etymology

Origin of bob¹

First recorded in 1400–50, bob is from the late Middle English word bobben. See bob ²

Origin of bob²

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English bobbe (noun) “spray, cluster, bunch (of leaves, flowers, fruit, etc.)”; of uncertain origin

Origin of bob³

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English bobben “to strike, beat,” perhaps imitative; see bop ²

Origin of bob⁴

First recorded in 1780–90; origin unknown; perhaps from Bob

Explanation

To bob is to dip up and down, the way something does when it floats on the surface of water. A lobster buoy bobs in the ocean, marking the spot where a lobsterman's trap is set. Your friend stands out when her red hat bobs among a crowd of people, and so does a red boat as it bobs on a lake. You might bob your head to indicate agreement or get a short haircut that's also called a bob. The motion bob comes from the Old English bobben, "to strike," while the hair style stems from the earlier bobbe, or "cluster," and first referred a trimmed horse's tail.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bob Bob bobbed bobbing

"So there's a lot that's not great about an Oscar. And you don't get any money. They could give you a few bob with it, at least," she joked.

From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026

As if to distinguish herself further from the sea of Fox News look- and think-alikes, she cut her long blond waves into a modest bob.

From Slate ● May 6, 2026

“I’m not going to bob and weave about context, the joke was dumb, the fandom is not. I owe them an explanation and a genuine reflection of my actual feelings.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 17, 2026

Pilot Jakob Mandlbauer was stretchered off after the bob hurtled down the track for a good 30 seconds on its side.

From Barron's ● Feb. 21, 2026

Girls were beginning to bob their hair and boys to lubricate theirs.

From "Cheaper by the Dozen" by Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey

“There’s no deceleration in the fares,” Southwest CEO Bob Jordan said yesterday.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026

Nearly a century later, when kids spend half as much time outside as their parents did, City Councilmember Bob Blumenfield wants to cut the obscure law from the books.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026

Bob Lang, founder of the options-trading service Explosive Options, said an important nuance is that not every hyperscaler funds its capital expenditures with external financing.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 23, 2026

Meanwhile, Fleetwood Mac's 1977 classic Rumours and Bob Marley's best-of album Legend have both moved into the all-time top 10 over the past 10 years.

From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026

Bob helped them over the top of another ridge.

From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan

And by the 1920s, women with bobbed hair came to represent female independence and rebellion.

From BBC ● Jun. 3, 2026

On a recent morning, two surfers bobbed up and down on their boards directly in front of the new Club Med.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 31, 2026

Shares of the electric-vehicle maker bobbed around early Friday, and were recently up 0.2% at $436.82, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.2% and 0.1%, respectively.

From Barron's ● Jan. 9, 2026

Reiner bobbed and weaved and, in the process of entertaining himself, directed at least one of everyone’s favorite movies.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 15, 2025

Sunflowers bobbed gently in the breeze, gilded in the light of the setting sun.

From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros

An AI-generated video shows a crowd of young - mostly black - men, wearing balaclavas and padded jackets, slipping down a water slide into a dirty swimming pool with litter bobbing on the surface.

From BBC ● Feb. 21, 2026

“You can’t hear it without tapping a toe, bobbing a head or getting up and doing the full choreography,” said Will Coss, executive producer of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 27, 2025

Many benchmark indexes are still bobbing around record highs, and that has many investors concerned about high stock valuations.

From Barron's ● Nov. 19, 2025

The foreground is a scar of denuded earth, storage tanks and bobbing pumpjacks — the legacy of oil discovered a century ago when only farmhouses were scattered over the surrounding flatlands.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 9, 2025

A short time later I saw in the distance the light from a headlamp bobbing along.

From "Black Star, Bright Dawn" by Scott O'Dell