Synonyms

bobbing

American

[bob-ing] / ˈbɒb ɪŋ /

noun

Radar.

the effect on a radarscope of the fluctuation of a radar echo because of alternating interference and reinforcement of the reflected waves.

Etymology

Origin of bobbing

bob ¹ + -ing ¹

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Office workers being tossed around their workplaces; cars bobbing in the surf like ice cubes in a punchbowl; skyscrapers waving like reeds in the wind.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 5, 2026

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

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

My brain feels like a carousel, spinning around and around and bobbing up and down, and the longer it spins, the harder it becomes to sleep.

From "How to Disappear Completely" by Ali Standish

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023