bobby pin

American  

noun

bobby pins plural

1. a flat, springlike metal hairpin having the prongs held close together by tension.

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bobby pin British  

noun

1. Brit terms: hairgrip.   kirby grip.  a metal hairpin bent in order to hold the hair in place

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• bobby pins
  plural

Etymology

Origin of bobby pin

1935–40, perhaps Bobby (proper name), by association with bobbed hair ( see bob ²), in which such pins are used

Example Sentences

She secured the $80,000 two-bedroom house after 18 months of trades that started with a lone bobby pin.

From Seattle Times • Dec. 15, 2021

In this game, I would bobby pin one of my grandmother’s yellow towels over my own hair.

From New York Times • Dec. 4, 2020

But there are threats that we haven’t evolved to perceive, and need to learn about, which is why your kid won’t eat broccoli but will happily toddle toward an electrical outlet, bobby pin in hand.

From Washington Post • Sep. 3, 2020

If surgeons move the electrode by as little as the width of a bobby pin, they hold Frankensteinian power to play with a person’s emotions.

From Science Magazine • Sep. 14, 2018

She pulled a bobby pin from her hair and began to pick her teeth.

From "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison