dob

See also: Appendix:Variations of "dob"

Translingual

Symbol

dob

1. (international standards) ISO 639-3 language code for Dobu.

See also

• Wiktionary’s coverage of Dobu terms

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /dɑb/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /dɒb/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒb

Etymology 1

Uncertain. Possibly from Middle English dobben.

Verb

dob (third-person singular simple present dobs, present participle dobbing, simple past and past participle dobbed)

1. (slang, chiefly Australia, New Zealand) To report (a person) to someone in authority for a wrongdoing.

   I’ll dob on you if you break in.

   You dobbed me in! — I never did!

   • 1983, James Macpherson, The Feral Classroom, page 107:

     Students often claimed that an act of informing was just ‘dobbing as a joke’ and therefore ‘not really dobbing’.

   • 1998, Supreme Court of Victoria, Council of Law Reporting in Victoria, Victorian Reports, Volume 4, page 372,

     The deceased “dobbed” him in about drugs to police on two occasions. This resulted in police seizing some of his drugs. She “dobbed” him in because he would not give her amphetamines. He may have told people that she “dobbed” him in.

   • 2006, Ian Findley, Shared Responsibility: Beating Bullying in Australian Schools, page 67:

     Alex was concerned that if others thought he had dobbed, things would get even worse for him. Dobbing was the worst thing a student could do.

2. (slang, chiefly Australia) To do one's share; to contribute.

   We all dobbed in for a gift when he retired.

   • 1968, Louise Elizabeth Rorabacher, Aliens in Their Land: The Aborigine in the Australian Short Story, page 80:

     He′d never take payment in cash for tracking, but when they dobbed in for presentations such as the fridge he accepted them shyly, abashedly, […] .

   • 1976, Margaret Paice, Colour in the Creek, page 53:

     The miners had all dobbed in to buy a few bottles of beer which they left in the creek overnight to cool.

3. (slang, chiefly Australia) To nominate a person, often in their absence, for an unpleasant task.

   I arrived just after the meeting had started and found myself dobbed in to take the minutes.

   • 1977, University of British Columbia, Canadian Literature, Issues 74-77, page 108,

     Writing reviews reminds me of the time I got dobbed in to be the judge at the Poochera sheep dog trials. It′s easy they said, sinking beers in the shade of the lean-to, just watch the dog.

   • 2001, Kerreen M. Reiger, Sheila Kitzinger, Our Bodies, Our Babies: The Forgotten Women's Movement, page 153:

     Those who moved into organisational roles sometimes did it unwittingly, even unwillingly, as they were ‘dobbed’ in for tasks, succeeded and so it went on.

4. (slang, Northern Ireland) To play truant
   • 2015 October 11, Kevin Mullan, “189 parents in dock for ‘dobbing’”, in Londonderry Sentinel‎:

     Parents were taken to court 189 times in the Western region over the past five years because their children were ‘dobbing’ school.¶ The Education Minister John O’Dowd revealed the number of parents taken to court due to children being absent from school […]

Usage notes

(all senses): Most often used with "in" or "on".

Synonyms

• (report a person): See also Thesaurus:rat out
• (play truant): See also Thesaurus:play truant

Derived terms

• dob in
• dobber

Etymology 2

Probably variation of dab.

Noun

dob (plural dobs)

1. A small amount of something, especially paste.

   Put a dob of butter on the potato, please.

   • 1903, Rudyard Kipling, The Tabu Tale, in Just So Stories (in the U.S. Scribner edition, but omitted from most British editions),

     ‘Consequence will be, O Tegumai,’ said the Head Chief, ‘that we will make them understand it with sticks and stinging-nettles and dobs of mud; and if that doesn't teach them, we'll draw fine, freehand Tribal patterns on their backs with the cutty edges of mussel-shells. […] ’

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:dob.

Related terms

• dab

Etymology 3

Initialism.

Noun

dob

1. Initialism of date of birth.

Alternative forms

• DOB

Etymology 4

Short for do our best. dyb (or dib) and dob were used as abbreviated forms of do your best and do our best in certain Scout chants.

Verb

dob (third-person singular simple present dobs, present participle dobbing, simple past and past participle dobbed)

1. (intransitive, sometimes humorous) In the scouting movement, to chant dob to indicate that one will do one's best to follow the scouting laws.
   • 2009, Clive James, Unreliable Memoirs, page 54:

     I used to get through the dibbing and dobbing all right but during the howling I usually rolled over backwards.

   • 2009, Justin Pollard, The Interesting Bits:

     Why were there 212 fatalities at the first boy scout camp? There wasn't much dybbing and dobbing at Robert Baden-Powell's first scout camp as the camp in question was in Mafeking and took place during a particularly nasty siege […]

Anagrams

• Bod, bod, ODB, OBD, BDO, BOD

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈdop]
• Rhymes: -op

Noun

dob

1. genitive plural of doba

Anagrams

• bod