Pronunciations (2)
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/dɑb/
Pronunciation notes
- General-American
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/dɒb/
Pronunciation notes
- Received-Pronunciation
Verb
To report a person to someone in authority for a wrongdoing. (For transitive forms see dob in, dob on.)
Usage- Australia
- New-Zealand
- Intransitive
- Slang
- Examples
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Students often claimed that an act of informing was just ‘dobbing as a joke’ and therefore ‘not really dobbing’.
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.
To play truant.
Usage- Northern-Ireland
- Transitive or intransitive
- Slang
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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 […]
Noun
A small amount of something, especially paste.
- Related words
- Examples
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Put a dob of butter on the potato, please.
More examples (1)
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. […] ’
Verb
In the scouting movement, to chant dob to indicate that one will do one's best to follow the scouting laws.
Usage- Humorous
- Intransitive
- sometimes
- Examples
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I used to get through the dibbing and dobbing all right but during the howling I usually rolled over backwards.
More examples (1)
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[…]