• Dob

    Pronunciation

    • Rhymes: -É’b

    Origin 1

    Uncertain.

    Full definition of dob

    Verb

    1. (slang, chiefly Australia and UK) 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.
    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.

    Usage notes

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

    Derived terms

    Noun

    dob

    (plural dobs)
    1. A small amount of something, especially paste.Put a dob of butter on the potato, please.
      • 1903, Rudyard Kipling, , in (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....’

    Related terms

    Origin 2

    Initialism.

    {{initialism-old|en}}

    dob
    1. date of birth

    Alternative forms

    Pronunciation

    • Rhymes: -É’b

    Origin 3

    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

    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 BitsWhy 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...

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