Bob, n.7
(bɒb)
Also bob.
A pet form of the name Robert.
1. Hence, perhaps, the use of the word, in various combinations, denoting persons: as dry-bob, a boy (at Eton) who devotes himself to land-sports, as cricket, football, etc.; wet-bob, one who devotes himself to boating; light-bob, a soldier of the light infantry, or of a light company.
| 1721 S. Centlivre Platon. Lady Epil., Some Cheapside-Bobbs too trudge it to our play. 1844 Disraeli Coningsby I. ix. 102 ‘The match to-morrow shall be between Aquatics and Drybobs,’ said a senior boy. 1844 W. H. Maxwell Sports & Adv. Scotl. xxxv. (1855) 282 Me, that never..listened to a light-bob. 1848 Thackeray Van. Fair xxiv. (1853) 102 Mr. Stubble, as may be supposed from his size and slenderness, was of the Light Bobs. 1865 W. L. C. Etoniana xi. 172 Of course a ‘dry-bob’ boats occasionally, and a ‘wet-bob’ plays cricket. 1886 Sat. Rev. 27 Mar. ‘Reformed Eton’, We are not even informed whether he is a wet bob or a dry bob. |
2. Short for bob-white.
| 1883 Century Mag. Aug. 483/2 The European partridge..weighs twice as much as Bob White, but he has not Bob's sturdy, rapid..flight. 1902 Sandys & Van Dyke Upland Game Birds 9 Then brave, brown Bob..enters Love's fateful lists. |
3. Slang phr. Bob's (bob's) your uncle: everything is all right.
| 1937 in Partridge Dict. Slang (ed. 2) 981/2. 1946 S. Spender Europ. Witness 143 He mixes up phrases such as ‘Oh boy, oh boy’, with cockney such as ‘Bob's-your-uncle’. 1949 ‘N. Blake’ Head of Traveller iv. 60 Three curves and a twiddle, label it ‘Object’, and bob's your uncle. |